These 3 photographs capture the ritual that occurs every day, over and over. The male leaves to find the perfect stick, the female inspects when he returns, and with luck she likes it.
However, I have seen males keep a rejected stick and go to another nest. I wonder if he is let back in to the first nest?
The delivery…
hands off the stick and…
it’s a winner, she accepts it.
Terrific shots. Quite the mating ritual!
Thank you. It’s pretty interesting to watch. The big herons can croak very loud as they zoom around. Even better when they chase each other for getting to close to the wrong nest.
Beautiful pics. Ted, how many hours do you spend there a day ?
We visit this heron rookery 2 / 3 times a week and spend maybe 3 hours. There are many swamps and marshes here and we visit a number of places.