Seen this today, had to use the binoculars to help get a decent picture. Appeared to have three young ones in the nest. Was feeding them when I first saw it.

Cool!

We call them poop a cords
A lot of are rats will have a hole in the hide from them

I used to kill all perch and feed the Herons on Wabedo lake as a kid

Had a ranch in Kansas that had an old Sycamore tree that had several nests in those trees. Only place I had ever seen them clustered together like that. Just off the bank of a stream. Never saw any occupied then since it was wintertime when I was out there.

Cool! I have never seen one that had an adult there.

There is a Blue Heron rookerie about 4 miles from y house. 25 years ago it was full, with about 12-20 nests. It went dead for many years. Last year there were a couple active nests, this year about 4 or so. Really neat. Lot of cars stop by for sighting and photos.

Bryce

Knew of a couple nest sites for them years ago.
One was a beach tree , had 15 or more nests in it.
The droppings killed the tree and after a couple years they were gone.
People would come from miles away just to see it.
The people that owned the woods were farmers I worked for as a kid.
Good people and they would let people walk back to see them.

First one I’ve seen with an adult a little ones. I’ve seen just nest but never knew what had used them. They had built in this sycamore tree. Looks like it’s dying.This was along the Mitchell river in Dobson Nc

hundreds of nest on an island here on our lake. Noisey and nasty. The trees under the nest look like they been sprayed with brush killer..Ugliest baby chicks you ever seen ...

I wouldn't advise walking under a tree with a nest in it. Them nasty things like to puke up stuff and try to get you with it. We found that out as kids at a Scout Camp one time.

When I worked for MSU on the Titt. R. Dioxin Prj. some of the undergrads were taught to climb to get to the Heron & owl nests for sampling.
Speaking of ugly close-up & personal-


Learning to climb-


Preparing to climb to the nests-


Over then undergrad's shoulder photo of heron nest-


Just before the snatch with the catch pole-

Had a rookery by our cabin in Ontario about 10-15 years ago. About the same #. When you would take people too close they would puke dead fish on you. All at once, raining rotten fish. Pretty cool defense system. The bush underneath the rookery was also all dead from droppings I assume, but it helped them see predators coming so I figured it was by design.

Now that's funny

We just bought another 10 acres north of our house that adjoins our north line. We have a rookery in about 8 sycamores and approximately 20-30 nests. It does make the ground white under them. I don't mind them until the adults fly down to my pond and work on my ducklings......

In the 1970s on Sauk River near Cold Spring, MN, there were almost 1600 Blue Heron nests counted. For some reason, that rookery has long since become abandoned.

Those heron chicks are something only a mother could love. They are butt-ugly!

A buddy and I were spring turkey hunting the beginning of May this year. We pulled into a spot and as soon as we got out of the truck we started hearing weird noises that neither one of us could identify. We snuck in through the woods towards the noises and it turned out it was a pair of great blue herons that most likely had a nest nearby. The two of them started harassing us and didn’t quit until we left the area.

Luckily, nobody got puked on.

Around here if ya get too close to their nest you will quickly understand how they earned their nickname around these parts. Sh-t stringers. As they will try and bombard you with all types of unpleasantries…

Photographed this one with an eel in Florida several years ago, they can be hard on baby ducks and young muskrats. It’s not uncommon for them to kill things that are too big to eat and then discard once they realize it.

They band those as well, just don’t call it in cause they start asking all sorts of questions you don’t want to answer.