Sightings July 11: two more night heron colonies

Today I checked up on two Yellow-crowned Night-Heron colonies that were known from previous years, both in Orleans Parish.

The colony on St. Roch from about 1/2 block to 2 1/2 blocks north of Gentilly only had three nests that had extensive whitewash below- which is the expected indication of successful nests by this point of the season.  Two of these still had large young present. This was quite a drop from last year, when 22 such nests were on this same stretch- the reason for the smaller numbers/lower success is anyone's guess.

The colony on Ursulines west of Broad fared better.  A slow drive through (and back) revealed 13 large patches of whitewash, again indicative of nests reaching advanced stage.  They were in two clusters, around address #2800 and #3020.

I really need to check under the nests to see if there are lots of crawfish remains, as there are are under the live oak across the street from me!  These birds are farther from the batture.

A list of other known significant night-heron colonies in the area is on page 22-23 of Birding Made Easy-New Orleans.

Good birding,

Peter

for a copy of Birding Made Easy-New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com, or look for it at the Maple Street or Garden District Book Shops.