Funny you should ask, Gail! This morning I was birding along the River Trail 
at Great Falls, and was surprised to see a Black-crowned Night-Heron flying 
around with a long twiggy stick in its beak. It disappeared into the trees 
on Conn Island behind the eagle nest, where there's a large (and noisy) 
Great Blue Heron rookery.

Walter Ellison tells me that BCNHs are known to nest alongside other heron 
species on islands. Although it's late in the season for nest building, the 
twig could have been intended for nest repair -- a likely explanation given 
the thunderstorm we had here last night (Great Falls park was without 
electric power this morning as a result).

This part of the C&O Canal is within my atlas block, so if any of you folks 
visiting Great Falls see other supporting evidence, please let me know.

Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)

----------------------------------------------------------------
"Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gail B. Mackiernan <>" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 11:22 AM
Subject: [MDOSPREY] Question on BC Night-Herons


| Hi --
|
| We are seeing quite a few adult and recently-fledged young BC Night-Herons 
at a local storm-water pond off Sligo Creek Park in Wheaton. This is an 
annual phenomenon, this year there are even more birds there.
|
| According the the National Zoo's web site, where there is a large colony, 
the birds arrive at the colony around March 1 and in about 3 months the 
young are fledged.
|
| I assume these birds are from the Zoo -- or are there any other local 
breeding colonies that any atlasers know about? There are no nests at the 
storm-water pond- the zoo's colony is quite a distance away though probably 
not a long flight for one of these herons. It would be great if there were 
other breeding areas but we have not been able to locate any in several 
years of atlasing.
|
| Interestingly, although the famed Yellow-crowned Night-herons are nesting 
much closer to these ponds, in fact, in the next atlas block south of ours, 
we have almost never seen one in our block, either at the ponds or along the 
stream.
|
| Gail Mackiernan
| Colesville, MD
|
|