Rookery

A very delayed blog entry about a visit to a rookery in April. I spent two days there as part of a group of five photographers. Rookeries are a noisy and exciting affair.

The trees were shared by five species: Cormorants, White Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons, and Roseate Spoonbills. The Cormorants were midway into rearing their chicks; the Spoonbills were just beginning to build nests.

Nest-building sometimes meant fighting over the best sticks. In this case the bird on the left won and happily carried the unwieldy stick up to his mate who carefully set it in place.

There she is waiting expectantly.

The Cormorants were busy bringing food for their chicks, but before the chicks could be fed there was a greeting ceremony to be done. The parents first greeted each other elaborately, only then would the arriving parent feed the chicks.

The Snowy Egrets did everything with a flourish. They are so much smaller than the others, but they are the loudest and the liveliest of the bunch, and their pointy beak is definitely respected by Spoonbills.

In between it all, not really being counted but very much present, were the Grackles. Their nests were invisible to us visitors, but the Grackles themselves didn’t go unnoticed.

Everyone in my group came home with amazing images, and I had a great time observing the very personal style of each photographer. It was a long drive there, and totally worth it!