Armed with encouragement and excellent directions from my friend, and Silver
Spring resident, Kathy Westra at the Wilderness Society, I drove over to
check on the nesting Yellow-crowned Night-herons this morning. When I
arrived at the nest, directly over Sligo Creek about 30 feet past the little
pedestrian bridge just south of Colesville Rd., I found three juvenile YC
herons walking around in the nest and two more juvs walking around on the
limbs in nearby trees.  No adults were visible. A passing walker/jogger said
there was an adult in the creek just up stream, so I walked up the path and
found an adult Black-crown Night-heron feeding in the creek. The bird soon
flew up to a nearby tree limb, when some idiot with a cell-phone camera got
too close and flushed the bird., Back at the nest, still no adult
Yellow-crown, so I drove north on the parkway, across Colesville Rd., and
found one adult Yellow-crown heron feeding in the grass by the picnic
tables, just past the first road from the right. I watch this bird for about
5 minutes, when a second YC adult flew in and chased away the first bird.
This bird also began to feed in the wet grass.
 I drove back to the nest, found the Black-crown adult back in the creek and
just as I was about to leave the nest area, a group of children in the
playground across the creek flushed an adult Yellow-crown that flew up  to a
branch next to the nest. By then two of the chicks were hunkered down in the
nest; a third was walking around in the trees and the other two juvs were
out of sight.  So in about an hour, I saw five juvenile Yellow- Crowns,
three adult Yellow-crowns, and one adult Black-crown. Not a bad trip.  Thank
Kathy!!
-- 
Donald Sweig
Falls Church, Va.