Baby Blue isn't a baby any more!

On the 14th I visited the heronry again only to find the Sycamore leaves had opened almost overnight. The huge trees had been very obliging up to this point by being the last to open, but now they too were budding out. On top of that, the babies had grown! They were so big now they were practically pushing mama and papa out of the nests. Some nests had three and even four chicks in them. How these babies stay put and don't fall out is anyone's guess. While I was there the wind was very strong, and it looked as if one baby would be buffeted out of the nest, but he held tight, taking the winds in stride. Mama and papa didn't seem too worried either. 

For Heaven's sake Baby Blue...get down and stay down. 

It's windy out, and you're standing on the edge of the nest!

It looked like there were two babies in this nest, but as 

the back baby settled down in the nest, two more chicks 

popped up...four babies in one of the smaller nests.

I have no idea how Great Blue Heron babies fledge. I've never been able to witness it in past years because the leaves always come out in full force and obscure our views. Do they hop from branch to branch after climbing out of a nest? Do they jump and soar after mama? Tomorrow morning I'm heading back over to see if any of the babies are ready to leave the nest. Maybe I'll get to watch one fledge! I've read it usually takes three months from the start of incubation to fledging. In this past post,  we can see that on March 6, 2009, four of our Great Blue Herons were sitting on eggs, so it won't be long now!

Poor papa. He no sooner landed in the nest than all 

three babies popped up mobbing him (or her, maybe 

it's mama) for food. They would thrust their bills high 

and sometimes catch their parent's bill in theirs. 

p.s. You may notice the photos are a little blurrier than usual. This is because the nonstop winds kept tossing me around too, making it hard to stand still and get a crisp shot. I guess on very windy days, a tripod would be much better than a monopod!