A female has arrived, and might be interested in a partner already.
The ‘stick ritual’ has begun.
The female liked the nest and right away the male started offering sticks. It’s a lot like buying her flowers.
While she didn’t take this stick, she didn’t fly off either.
There will be sticks, fights, even hugs, building a bond. They need that, when things get serious young Herons are a lot of work.
Is it that time of year already? I was wondering when they start getting their breeding plumage down here. Where we are now there is not a lot of birds at the moment, I see the ocassional rare bird and then I don’t see any the next day.
It’s early for this, but not 😃. The Great Blue start first. Now they are in the first steps but typically we get a cold spell which slows things down. Mid January the big Herons get serious, a month later the Great Egrets and Anhinga, finally May the small wading birds. Climate changes things, but this is the usual path.