Since last I posted, our five herons had increased to
eight.   Four nests, eight heron.  Tidy, no?  No.

Among what we were originally calling nests
one through four, when viewed left to right from
the trail head at Windsor Mill and Weatherdsville
Rds., nest one grew steadily in bulk, and we saw
activity as well at nests 3 and 4.  Each of these nests
had a heron pair.

Nest 2, however, attracted only bird whom we
never saw on the job.   The other unmatched heron
was well to the left, just as far away as possible and
still be in the same tree.  Nest 2 declined in bulk,
and had disappeared by last weekend.

Today, however, Paul informed me that a new nest  #1
is under construction.  I visited this afternoon, and
there are sticks being brought in; and the bird bringing
them in, and the second heron, are both working at
arranging the sticks.  There is a lot of raising of fine
hairy feathers on the back, and a lot of nibbling
of one heron on the other.   The NEW nest #1 is
just about where one of the two lone herons was
often to be seen perching.   Also, there is a new nest
#3 under construction above the place where
(the former) nest 2 fell apart (this is worse than
the break-up of Yugoslavia!!) with two herons on the
job.   There also appear to be birds sitting on renumbered
nests #2, 4 and 5.    I only counted eight herons this
afternoon; and the leafing out of the trees is making
it increasingly difficult to see.   (#2 and #5 had a single
bird each; the other three had pairs activity working
on nest-building.)

Paul remarked in an e-mail to me as early as April 14
that there appeared to be a bird sitting on nest 5; by
the 16th, he remarked on birds sitting on nest 2 as
well as 5.   For the purposes of egg dates - how
does one judge when the bird has finished laying
its clutch?  Is this best left to experts, or is there
a rule of thumb one can use?  We will be watching
for young, and surely be sending out birth
announcements.   The colony is on my way in to work,
and serves as a whole new reason for being late in
the morning!

Last Friday at dusk, we saw one of the herons
feeding in the Gwynns Falls near the bridge.
We understand them to be mostly solitary feeders.
It was close enough to see the intense red iris nicely.

Sunday along Weatheredsville Road

Would like to sneak in a belated word
about the little stretch of Weatheredsville Road
right near the herons between Windsor Mill
and Franklintown Rds. birded last Sunday
between 9:00 and 11:00 a.m.   Just a few highlights.

We had numerous PALM WARBLERS, as many
as five in view at a time.  Ditto RUBY-CROWNED
KINGLETS, who were in good song.  Many
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS.  A single BLACK
AND WHITE WARBLER.  We frequently heard a
NORTHERN PARULA; but not a one to be seen.
We again saw a LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH,
seen and heard on Friday.

Very pleased to see two BROAD-WINGED HAWKS,
and a single flyover DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT.
Also special - an OSPREY flying close in.  This is our third
Osprey sighting along the Gwynns Falls in approximately
one week,  so it looks like a bird was hanging around.  Also,
two BLACK VULTURES.   The more typical hawks
included Cooper's, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed.   The
first ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS were back; and
a KINGFISHER was seen.   Two BARRED OWLS
were heard, and heard Friday, and heard last night from
my house (near the park) when I was trying to sleep.

On the home front, a HOUSE WREN showed up
over the weekend.  Paul has had one nesting on his
back porch the 25 years I've known him.  Now, a
couple of weeks ago, a Chickadee started enlarging
the entrance hole to our wren box, but eventually
appeared to stop.    The two feral cats I've been trying
to trap (one down, one to go; hopefully this week)
on the back porch may have had something to
do with this.   On finding the wren was back,
we quickly took down the box to clean it.  Not
a single stick or shred of nesting material was
present!  Did the chickadee do the job for us?

Elise Kreiss
Baltimore City

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