Juvenile Tricolored Heron at the Ibis Pond Rookery

Birding Hilton Head Island and Pinckney Island NWR, SC
In June, Matty, Rick and I spent a week on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. While Matty skimboarded and Rick played tennis, I headed to Pinckney Island to bird. I was there almost every day and have so many cool photos. This first series is of a juvenile Tricolored Heron waiting patiently for his mama or papa to bring him some lunch. He was the first bird I saw when I parked my bike and walked toward the Ibis Pond Rookery. I was shocked because he was on "our" side...not across the alligator mote on the unreachable island in the middle of Ibis Pond. Last year all the nests in the rookery were confined to the tiny island (click here for last year's 15 Pinckney Island posts), but this year, several Tricolored Heron families, Snowy Egret families, and Little Blue Heron families were nesting together in their own little colony on our side of the mote in the small trees near the water. The rookery had expanded...

This juvenile Tricolored Heron had already left the nest, but he was not old enough to fly out to the feeding grounds to find his own meal and still relied on his parents for regurgitated food.

Two of his siblings were hanging out in the treetops with him (they were about 20 feet off the ground, and their empty nest was about 7 feet off the ground). This fellow was getting very excited because he could see his mama or papa approaching...

Food!! Thank goodness...

He wanted more, but mama had other babies to feed...

...and other designs in mind. She seemed to be trying to get him to fly, and she stayed with him for a while, while he flapped his wings.

...eventually she took off and flew over to the other sibling.

In part 2 of this series, a sibling takes flight.

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