UPDATE: Up close with the heron family
Still from the live heron cam
UPDATE: another egg (that makes two!) this morning, and new greenery adorning the nest.
This is too good not to share. During our special “Spring” call-in Tuesday, Curt Stager and I heard of early season sightings of Great Blue Herons along the St. Lawrence River. Then our friend Mimi reported her first GBH sighting on her way back to Potsdam from answering phones at the fundraiser here.
Curt and I talked about how we weren’t sure when they really get to their mass rookeries to lay eggs and raise a family. I’ve watched a rookery from a distance, but, you know, what happens up in those Dr. Suess-like settings is pretty mysterious.
And THEN, I check my e-mail and the great people at the Cornell Ornithology Lab report herons with an egg in a nest where they’ve got a live webcam stream set up. It’s in a big dead white oak at their Sapsucker Woods site.
I love it…watching the wind blowing through the heron’s feathers as he/she? stands over the one egg. Two camera angles…and SOUND. Right now! Live!
Tags: birds, environment, nature
Had no idea their eggs were blue, and not much bigger than a chicken’s it seems.
so what’s the gestation?
excuse me, “incubation”
I can’t stop watching the heron. It’s strange. I feel i have to protect it. And we do.
Keep your whiskey, cigarettes and drugs–this lovely bird is my addiction!
Where I work someone I know shot one for eating fish out of their pond. Can you believe it it’s true, it’s against the law but up here, everybody’s afraid to report things due to backlash . I am so glad to see this family doing fine.
Thanks to Aileen O’Donoghue, this link to the live eagle webcam from Iowa:
http://blog.nwf.org/2012/02/eagle-cam-is-back-watch-iowa-bald-eagle-eggs-hatching-live/
Where is the nest?
Shakespeare107–It’s at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Sapsucker Woods Pond, Ithaca, New York.
Dale Hobson, NCPR
This is awesome, marvelous, wonderful, etc. It truly rocks my world. Blues are awesome – and now to have the chance to be so close to them is a gift. Thank you!
Gorgeous. . . just what I need: another beautiful bird to watch! I’m a big fan of owls, and right now I’m watching Mel and Sydney, Barn Owls in Oceanside, CA on USTREAM. Can’t get enough. Here’s the link to the inside cam: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/owlceanside But beware! You won’t stop until they fledge.
Another egg this morning and much nest tending! I’m loving this.
This is truly wonderful, though potentially addictive.
Herons have gorgeous plumage, but would never let it be admired this close unless they were in a cage, and that’s an unhappy scenario.
The sound is fantastic, soothing and restorative. I like heights so it’s cool to get this tree-top vantage point. If you go to the actual website the live chat is pretty amusing too.
Thanks for sharing!
I’m addicted, that’s for sure. And as Lucy said, the sound is fantastic, and the view as well. Great when you’re behind a desk most of the day!
Watch for another egg …. I saw them mating! There they were, right there in front of God and everybody, I felt like a voyeur.
This is inspiring and uplifting, providing a much needed perspective on the passage of time and pace of life. The book Great Blue by Marnie Crowell comes to mind. Thank you for providing….
It’s the sound that makes it addicting. What a wonderful window to look through.
The consensus was another egg sunday eve, 5:30ish.
They have started to get serious about staying on the eggs now and take turns nesting and collecting sticks.
They maxed out at four eggs last year and years before.
First hatching will begin around the end of april.
After the female laid the second egg, the male flew back to the nest with a forsythia branch, i kid you not.
This is maybe the coolest thing you’ve ever done. Maybe Radio Bob could install cameras on all of the towers.
all radio, cell phone towers could double as osprey,eagle,falcon, heron nests maybe? when applicable?
Then no APA concerns about unsightlyness!
A question for Dale: if a thousand or so of us here at the NCPR website tune in to watch the eggs hatch…will that overload some system, or maybe bring about the end of the world as we know it??
stillin,
There isn’t any backlash just report what you know here, you don’t have to give your name. Don’t let people get away with that sort of thing:
TIPP DEC is a 24-hour telephone hotline that is also referred to as Turn in Poachers and Polluters. It is answered by live dispatchers. The TIPP phone number is 1-800-TIPP DEC (1-800-847-7332). Callers may request to file a complaint anonymously.
http://www.dec.ny.gov/regulations/393.html
We saw egg no. 3 arrive last night (Sunday) at 6:05 pm; someone named Laura_cornellbirds predicts no. 4 tuesday around 5 pm. She was off by less than 20 minutes for egg 3.
Being in manhattan, just the soundtrack to this site is a delight, with all the birdsong at sapsucker pond.
Don’t tell anyone…I have the sound up pretty much all day in my office. I love hearing the natural world. And I can check what’s going on when there’s a honk or two as one of the herons arrives with a new stick, or they change places, or whatever.
I think it’ll be lovely to see as spring foliage emerges around the pond. This make me want a viewing platform of my own.
Welcome to NPH, National Public Heron.
Mother great blue heron
Patience and dedication
An owl glides swiftly.