Checkup on nesting eagles and waders in Pontchartrain Park

Today the two adult Bald Eagles were hanging out with two adult-sized young in the nest in Pontchartrain Park.  The nest is in the top of a baldcypress across from the Lutheran Church just south of the SUNO campus.  Fledging looks imminent.

The rookery in south-central Pontchartrain Park is jumping with birds.  Great Egrets dominate the scene, and are the earliest nesters- their nests are now full of large young, which have reached about Snowy Egret size. Tricolored and  Black-crowned Night-Herons, White Ibis, and Snowy Egrets are also present in numbers, some sitting on nests, some flying in with twigs for nest-building.  Single Cattle Egrets and Little Blue Herons were also there, so may be nesting.  One Anhinga was there, perched on a snag, nesting status uncertain (not recorded nesting here previously).  The colony is noisy, bill clacking presumably coming from the Great Egret nestlings.

Cliff Swallows are again nesting on the underside of the Ted Hickey Bridge on Leon C. Simon (over the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal).  This is one of the best spots to see this species' nests, since they are over land (many other locations are over water).

Peter