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Most popular question of the month
Looking through the windows at the Library we have a beautiful "birds eye" view of the first Great Blue Heron nest at Sapsucker Woods. The most popular question of the month has been "When will the Great Blue Herons fledge?"
As your reference librarian I want to push you to the correct information such as All About Birds or if you are on campus or log in to your library account Birds of North American Online or so other resources but, sometimes you just want an answer!
I asked Laura Erickson an ornithologist at the Lab and this was her answer:
"Herons have a LOT of variation in fledging, so it makes for rather an interesting pool. It can be 64-91 days from hatching, with an mean of 81 days.
The first hatching was on June 5, as near as we can tell. That would mean if it went according to schedule, it would be fledging on or about August 25. I'd bet on an earlier fledging because they are getting so very much food."
Laura has been sharing her photos of the family online you can see the birds on Flickr.
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Update July 13, 2009
Hey folks,
Apparently, one of the heron chicks just left the nest (it was witnessed by one of our visitors). He's hanging out on the pond with one of the adults.
Kenyon
