Herons, Ducks & Eagles – Oh My!!

This past week the same Great Blue Heron continued to visit Oyster Cove daily. He really must like it here! He has been cool to watch and photograph as he goes about his day at our osprey nest and area.

Small fish seem abundant at our water’s edge for his appetite. I actually watched him catch the next fish and quickly swallow it……

…..and then dive again into the water, capture the next one and gulp it down, all in one minute. That’s some great fishing!

He stays alert on his surroundings, stretching his neck tall to see above the grasses when he’s not fishing.

And with his panoramic view from the nest, he can surely see anything coming his way.

This next one was just after sunset last Monday, the sky ‘pinked up’ for a few minutes and reflected on the water and our visiting blue heron.

The Great Blue Heron was not our only visitor here this week. While the blue heron was perched one time on the nest, this next green heron landed down close to the base. The blue heron was really stretching and looking at the green heron, which must have made the green heron nervous and he quickly took off.

Of course, our other daily nest base visitors always include the mallard duck. No apparent threats exist between them and the Great Blue Heron.

Only when the visiting blue heron was not around would a seagull visit the nest for a short stop. They like to check to see if by chance the blue heron may have left a small morsel of food.

Again this past week there have been numerous eagle sightings in the area. Mating season is beginning for eagles so you are apt to see a pair soaring together, which is really awesome to watch. This week one full-grown pair was seen a few times flying over at CBEC where there is at least one active nest. Another pair were young, not having their distinctive white head and tail as yet, and they kept more over towards the Narrows and Kent Island. Today, the CBEC pair were soaring real high over our nest, Marshy Creek, and CBEC, flying and intertwining as they glided in circles. As they descended down one long spiraling soar towards me, I was hoping they’d land on our nest since the blue heron wasn’t in sight; and I thought they were almost going to. But they passed on by and decided to perch over on Lipincott’s channel marker instead.

Is there a conversation going on between the pair in the next two photos??
(The female should be the larger of the two.)

The fishing boat in the first photo started up their motor and moved towards the channel marker which caused the pair to take off and head over to CBEC to perch in a tree where they felt safer.