[TN-Bird] Macedonia Bottoms Heronry activity increases
- From: "Mark Greene" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "greenesnake@xxxxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: TN-Birds Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2015 14:12:48 +0000 (UTC)
March 24, 2015Macedonia Bottoms Heronry,Western Gibson County
I stopped by the heron & egret colony yesterday to see what was going on and
the activity has increased there tremendously since my last visit on 3/18.
Great Egrets are now almost as numerous as the Great Blue Herons whereas last
time I only had a couple of Great Egrets. There were at least 50 of each
yesterday. There was lots of squabbling and territorial disputes going on with
many otherworldly sounds coming from the colony.
Also of interest was 10-12 Double-crested Cormorants. I watched as a couple of
birds were doing courtship flight displays over the colony. Last year I had
cormorants in the colony but could never confirm their actual nesting even
though I knew they had to be nesting there. Yesterday in addition to the
courtship flights, I also saw a couple of birds carrying sticks and I was able
to see one bird sitting on a nest. This is the first nest record of this
species for Gibson County! There were still no Anhingas yet but I'm keeping an
eye out as I suspect they will arrive any day now.
Right now you can still somewhat see into the colony from Hwy 104 but as the
trees start to foliate this will become more and more difficult. When the
Anhingas get back we hope to take a boat into the area again to try to document
their nesting as well. Last year we went into the colony area and had juvenile
Anhingas, just out of the nest that were unable to fly, but never saw their
nests.
Other birds of note in the area were about a dozen extremely vocal Fish Crows
(along with 4-5 American Crows). These birds were sitting all around the colony
in the tops of the Baldcypress trees. I can only imagine that they were looking
to rob the heron & egret nest of eggs if the opportunity presented itself.
There were also several Tree Swallows feeding high over the colony as well as
several Ring-necked Ducks and American Coots in the water below.
Good birding!
Mark GreeneTrenton, TNGibson County
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