As Fall Turns Into Winter, Our Nest Area Still Has Activity!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! My last post was another late season osprey sighting but there haven’t been any since. No longer are we experiencing the warm days as we settle into the late fall season. The temperatures have fallen and the visiting migrating birds are coming in daily as they search for food and shelter. The base of our osprey nest has now become a feeding area for other waterfowl. Of course, blue heron seem to love and frequent it almost daily around low tide. This one was fun to capture as he strutted around because he knew another blue heron was sitting 20 feet away.
The following photo is of the second blue heron he was strutting for! I’m not exactly sure whether the first blue heron was behaving this way to impress the second one or trying to let the second one know that he considered the base of the nest his territory. Whatever the reason, the second heron flew away after I photographed him.
Our other visitors at the base of the nest have included seagulls, mallards, wood ducks, geese, buffleheads, and more! Here’s some of them.
No matter the season, our area is a haven for various waterfowl, isn’t it great?!! As I’ve mentioned before, eagles are frequent as well now, I’ve recently watched two pair in our area as they bond and mate in the air and on the channel markers, as well as on a hunt for food. The small ducks get quite nervous when the eagles are flying around, it is not uncommon to watch a duck get snatched who’s just not quick enough to get away from a hungry eagle. (I saw it happen again this morning!)
Don’t forget to check out the Friends of Blackwater’s NWR osprey and eagle cams, they are both active with Blackwater’s pair of eagles visiting both nests and showing progress of adding to their own nest for their upcoming January/February breeding season. In addition, I am in the midst of creating some photo galleries of my better photos from other areas on the Chesapeake Bay, I hope to have loaded real soon!
