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A New Rookery In Town
Palo Alto Baylands, CA

Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve has long been one of my favorite bird photography destinations in northern California, and every Spring -- from April to early June -- you're likely to see me along its levee trails photographing nesting shore birds, diving terns, and even exotic pheasants. In the Spring of 2004 this great birding location got even better. Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and Black-crowned Night Herons took over the palm grove next to the duck pond and established a new nesting colony among the palm fronds.

Since the palm grove is adjacent to a duck pond and parking lot, and is surrounded by a low fence, the nesting birds quickly became habituated to humans -- even those with huge telephoto lenses and rapid-firing digital bodies.

The snowies and herons started nest building in late March, and, by late April, several pairs of great egrets also started building. By the first of May, two sets of snowies had already hatched, followed shortly by night herons. By June 6, some snowy egret and heron chicks were already as large as their parents. However, I couldn't determine if any great egret chicks had hatched by then -- their nests were built high and deep within the palm fronds, and were not visible. I did not get a chance to visit the rookery after this date, but I'm looking forward to the egrets and night herons returning to nest at the Baylands next year... along with some great blue herons, perhaps?

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