Tuesday, July 11, 2006

FLASH --Green Herons on target

Green Heron Chicks being fed, May 30, 2005
Photo by Cal Vornberger


Here's an exciting item from ebirds via Central Park birdwatcher Rhoda Lee Bauch:

DATE: Tuesday, 11 July 2006
LOCATION: Central Park

Hurrying to a doctor's appointment on the West side, I stopped at the Green Heron nest at about 2 p.m. where Annabella Cannarella greeted me with the news that she'd just seen the adult Heron lift the front of its body up revealing a white "fluff ball". Having missed this exciting event, after my doctor's appointment I returned to the nest at about 4 p.m. Luck was with me and I saw the new chick. We can conclude that at least one egg has hatched.

P.S. Bob Levy, [of Club George fame] who has been reporting regularly on the Green Herons' progress, sent in an unrelated, but amusing note today:

Here is a pertinent quote from a New York Times article about the Space Shuttle (New Scrutiny for Every Speck on the Shuttle, July 11). Unfortunately it does not mention if this was a “first” though I would guess it wasn’t. Still it goes to show us that even NASA has to pay attention to birds, or bird by-products, some of the time:


"They also pondered an octopus-shape black mark on the leading edge of the right wing that turned out to be soot from the craft’s small rockets and a suspicious white mark that appeared to have a black center that turned out not to be a dangerous ding, but dung. Or, more precisely, bird droppings."