Tuesday, April 16, 2013

What Is A Rookery?

The month of April is finally shaping up weather-wise, so we decided to head out for a little spring adventure.

One of the nature-related field trips on my list has been to find the Great Blue Heron Rookery.  I've seen many pictures of one at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, so I wrote down the coordinates, we entered them in the GPS, and off we went.

So, what is a rookery?  

It's a communal nesting ground for birds, mostly found in wetland areas.
  
All those "blobs" in that tree are heron nests.  There were 2 other trees filled with nests also, for a total of 100+ nests in this small area.






Here is a closer look where you can see the herons sitting or standing in their nests.
I thought they were amazing birds to watch.

LittleJ said they looked like paper airplanes as they glided.

We stayed and watched for a good 20 minutes.  The rookery is located right along a busy road with the only parking being a simple pull-off, so you are literally standing on the berm while you watch.
Even so,  it's worth a stop.  Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. great post, cindy - informative and interesting. i was once fortunate enough to view a tree full of herons at discovery park in seattle. it was amazing! (however, since living on hood canal, i've discovered one heron habit i'm not so fond of. ha ha)

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