Egrets on Front Page

The cattle egret rookery was on the front page of the Times Record News today with a short article. Unfortunately, the photo and story are not on the public portion of the website; they are only on the e-version of the paper, which requires a subscription.

Good birding!

Rookery Visit

I did go by the cattle egret rookery last evening to get a closer look. There are two large trees with easily over 50 birds nesting. I think the egrets are tolerating the grackles because the baby birds have not hatched out. I saw several of the birds bringing in twigs still.

Leaves from the trees are building up on the ground, along with quite a lot of bird poop. I am sure the apartment building residents are not happy as the trees are right over the front entry to their building and their parking spaces. The smell is already pretty strong--I can imagine what it will be like in a month or two.

That being said, it is exciting to see an active rookery up close. I am not sure the attraction of a busy area of town to establish one, but I don't pretend to know what birds are thinking.

Good birding!

Cattle Egret Rookery

I was tooling down Kell Blvd West and saw a bunch of white birds in a tree off to the right at Harrison. I go by that intersection at least 3 times a week. There were at least 50 cattle egrets in a clump of large trees in the apartments there. I know the management has to be oh-so-excited about that.

Since I go by there so often, I couldn't believe I wouldn't have noticed that many birds before now, but obviously, I didn't. I went by on the access road later in the day, just to confirm the birds were really there, and yes, they were.

An interesting note that there were several adult great-tailed grackles interspersed in the same trees. I am surprised the egrets would allow this since grackles tend to predate young birds. I'll have to go by again on the way home and check that out in more detail.

Good birding!