'Nesting' Black Crowned Night Herons

A visit to the Heron Rookery on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville Sunday afforded me a plethora of species of birds. Since I rarely get more than a glimpse of a Black Crowned Night Heron, I thought I would post images of them first. They were very busy flying in and out of the rookery. In this image, you can see the late afternoon sun casting its golden glow.

This Heron Rookery never ceases to amaze me with the different species that nest together in one large tree along the shoreline. I wonder have you ever tried to capture a Black Crowned Night Heron in flight? It's not like photographing a Great Blue Heron. They move much much slower than Night Herons. Night Herons fly much faster as they are not nearly as large a bird as their Great Blue Heron cousins. One never knows when you snap an image of one in flight, if it's even viable, but on this day I got very lucky.

I had trouble differentiating the leaves and tree branches from the Black Crowned Night Herons. The Great Blues stick out more as they are bigger, but the Night Herons being so small blend in. I snapped an image of a Great Blue Heron standing on a nest only to realize later that this Black Crowned Night Heron was sitting on its nest right below it.

Today there were Great Blue Herons, Black Crowned Night Herons, Cormorants and Great White Egrets flying all about the Heron Rookery, not to mention Barn Swallows and Canadian Geese. What a plethora and a pleasure to be in the company of such great species and able to photograph them. I will share Great Blue Heron images in a post soon. I hope you had a wonderful weekend. We finally, as you can see from these images, had a beautiful day Sunday with blue skies and low temperatures in the 70's. It was wonderful. ENJOY!

Nesting Cormorants

Yesterday's weather was nothing short of windy at Old Hickory Lake. I stood on one side of the peninsula that guts out into the lake in order to capture this image of the Cormorants' nesting. There were only one or two of the normal twenty or more Great Blue Herons in their nests as the wind was so bad, I doubt their weight coupled with that of their nests would have been comfortable. However, Cormorants are a much lighter bird and most chose to stay in the nest, while others flew in and out. Have a wonderful Sunday. ENJOY!

Duck River Unit, TN National Wildlife Refuge

There are several units of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge, and the Duck River Unit is one I have wanted to visit for some time. I knew from being a frequent visitor to Tennessee's page on the bird.aba.org website that the majority of waterfowl are located in far reaching areas of this refuge. That was quite accurate, as way off in the distance I could see a flock of American White Pelicans, not to mention quite a few Great White Egrets, wading in a huge wetland area. Choosing to stay on the gravel roads, I stopped in several spots to capture images of the wetlands and waterfowl as best I could. Bald Cypress Trees were plentiful in one swamp and had turned their customary burnt orange hue for Fall.

Not far from the Bald Cypress Trees in my first image there sat four Cormorants perched on a large tree branch in the middle of the wetland sunning themselves, accompanied by a lone Turtle. It was very difficult to get a decent shot as they were a good distance away so I had to crop significantly. My apologies. I snapped a few images in the car and then as I went to get out they flew off.

Just to the right a distance from the Cormorants stood a Great Blue Heron wading in the water as he fished for a meal. He too was not happy as I exited my car and hightailed it flying off making quite the ruckus as he went.

Down a side road I traveled quite a distance, got out of my car and walked a bit finding myself between two large wetlands. I scared something up as it lifted off and flew away in a hurry. I snapped a few images not even knowing what it was. Turns out it was an American White Pelican of all things. I didn't get to see it up close at the refuge, but my software helped hone in on it. It's Hunting Season in the refuge which could explain the waterfowl being so skittish. I didn't get to the west side of the refuge. Perhaps another day. ENJOY!