16 | February | 2019 | Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller

There is a Great Blue Heron rookery near Lake Nasworthy, near Spring Creek Park. You can’t miss it if you are driving around the little horseshoe shaped drive, near Spring Creek Marina. It is a huge collection of nests high in the area across the water.

We checked it out a few days ago and noted that there were about a dozen herons sitting or standing on some of the old nests. We didn’t see much activity other than that. I believe they may be getting ready to nest. In a few days or weeks, there will be many more, as there about thirty old nests still vacant. In other years, when the young have fledged, we could hear them noisily crying out that they were hungry. Crying isn’t the exact term. It sounds more like they are clacking their bills together, making a cacophony the reverberates over the water.

This photo was taken about a week ago.

Great Blue Heron

I really don’t know if this one is doing a mating call or is just stretching his neck.

Great Blue Heron

This is an older photo from my files of a Great Blue Heron doing a mating dance.

Great Blue Heron mating dance.

The kids never get enough to eat. And as you can see, they are very large. This will be a common scene in a few months.

“But ma, we’re still hungry”

But there are many of these herons that can be seen in other areas. I suspect they may be non-breeding birds or just don’t want to partake in such activities. We were out to Spring Creek Park this morning and we saw several others. This one was standing across the river.

Great Blue Heron

The heron population in this area has been very good to me. I have taken many successful photographs through the years. Here are a couple of my ‘best sellers’.