Barbie Heid
Photographer and critter lover
Hi all! My first question since joining the forum... A pair of yellow-crowned night herons (Nyctanassa violacea) showed up in my neighborhood this week and set up shop in a large oak tree on the property next door to me (here's one of them perching on a branch over my driveway). I'm SO excited to be able to observe this, but I am not in the immediate vicinity of a water/food source, and at the base of the tree is an acre of wide open space - no cover for fledglings to hide at all, not to mention no prey items. I'm about a tenth of a mile walk from a salt-flat marsh (Branford, Connecticut), but I can't see how these babies are going to get from point A to point B safely. And, this yard has three resident dogs that live there. I thought maybe they were just building a 'test-nest', but it appears she's sitting on eggs now - the male's bringing her food. But why? These little babies are doomed! Does this make any sense? Thanks!
