Tag Archives: MN North: Canosia Wildlife Area

Great Blue Heron Food Fight at the Rookery! (movie)

Year 7

I got up my courage to brave all the deer and horse flies and hiked into the Great Blue Heron Rookery this morning. I was thrilled to discover at the end of my hike that I did not have one single wood tick on me! (unusual). Regardless, the Great Blue Heron chicks are getting big, and should fledge soon. When they have a food fight, their beaks become lethal weapons. Please realize each time the parents deliver fish, a food fight entails. Make sure you watch the video!

Mom has just arrive. Bedlam awaits!

Food Fight Close-Up

Great Blue Heron Chick Food Fight (Mom just dropped off the fish and flew away)

Videos!

Mom tries to provide some fish … food fight starts
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Quiet reigns for a few moments at the Rookery (view of 1/4 of the nests)
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Short video showing what my hike out from the Rookery is like
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Morning at the Pond (Sandhill Cranes & Colts)

Year 7,

I owe one to the bugs … all those swarms of mosquitoes and deer flies. Let me explain. About one hour after sunrise this morning I arrived at the trailhead to the Great Blue Heron Rookery in the Canosia State Wildlife Preserve. Less than five minutes into my hike the swarms of bugs in combination with the thick undergrowth drenching me (thunder storms last night), I remarked to myself that my walk was definitely not fun! I turned around and bid a hasty adieu to the woods.

When I got in my car to escape the bugs, a short drive down the dirt road found me unexpectedly meeting a brand new family … two Sandhill Cranes and their two colts (chicks). They were out in the open near a pond with lots of wildflowers on the shore. I was in photographic heaven!

{Just below all the Sandhill Crane photographs and movie you will find an audio recording I took of Hoot last night at 3 am. I was standing in my bedroom next to the window!}

Sandhill Cranes and Colts

Movie! (link for email subscribers)

One final item … I have often remarked that many nights I can hear Hoot, the Great Horned Owl, from my bedroom window. I made this audio recording last night at 3:15 am of Hoot. She was screeching (two toned) and demanding to be fed by her parents.

Hoot at 3 am … audio only … recorded next to my bedroom window! (link for subscribers)

Canosia State Wildlife Area Heron Rookery Feeding Frenzy

Year 7

There were lots of deer flies, horse flies and woodticks, but all these “undesirables” were worth the annoyance yesterday.  I hiked into the Great Blue Heron Rookery in the Canosia State Wildlife Area and had a grand time. This year’s crop of young are getting big, and that means all the Moms and Dads were busy feeding their HUGE youngsters. The Great Blue Heron Chicks almost devoured their parent. It must have been tasty fish.

And some still images. Parents get no respect!

A Baltimore Oriole got into the spirit of feeding. I saw it over ten times. In this photograph it has caught a waterbug which it will soon take back to its nest for hungry young.

Like always, it’s important to not be fixated on the sky (birds) when I am out in the wild because I would have missed seeing this Otter Feeding. I will admit I could not figure out what was on the menu for lunch. I’ve included a close-up of the otter’s mouth … looks like some kind of plant and not fish?? (video link of the otter feeding for email subscribers). I actually was privileged to watch the otter finding its lunch for over ten minutes from a distance of only 30 yards.

And some stills, plus the close-up of the choppers!