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By the time I took this photograph I had been monitoring the nest for about an hour and all had been pretty quiet and uneventful. But now things would change. One of the parents was going home with food for the little ones. Three of the chicks are still unaware, but not chick #1. Long before any of its other siblings see mom or dad arriving with a home regurgitated meal this one is up an on the alert.
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By the time I took this photograph I had been monitoring the nest for about an hour and all had been pretty quiet and uneventful. But now things would change. One of the parents was going home with food for the little ones. Three of the chicks are still unaware, but not chick #1. Long before any of its other siblings see mom or dad arriving with a home regurgitated meal this one is up an on the alert.

DSC_8829 heron's nest

springStaten IslandClove LakesGreat blue heronbirdsnatureheronsNYC

  • DSC_8805 heron's nest
  • By the time I took this photograph I had been monitoring the nest for about an hour and all had been pretty quiet and uneventful. But now things would change. One of the parents was going home with food for the little ones. Three of the chicks are still unaware, but not chick #1. Long before any of its other siblings see mom or dad arriving with a home regurgitated meal this one is up an on the alert.
  • The parent lands on the branch near the nest and now a second chick is getting kind of interested, but not as much as sibling #1, who is up and very eager to eat.
  • Here's a perfect example of the behavior I observed today. Two siblings just barely acknowledging their parents return to the nest yet. A third completely oblivious to the fact, and one chick nearly spastic with excitement over the thought of getting fed again.
  • Only now nearly a minute later the small stunted chick scrambles to its feet in an attempt to garner it's parents attention, siblings two and three are starting to rise up to get some attention, but sibling #1 is already in position to get fed first.
  • Now everybody but our one eyed chick is screaming for attention hoping to get fed. At it's stunted size compared to it's siblings, it will be difficult or probably impossible to successfully compete for attention to get fed. Who knows how long it's been since it last ate, and it's future prospects look dimmer by the hour.
  • DSC_8876 fighting for food
  • DSC_8881 fighting for food
  • DSC_8904 heron's nest
  • DSC_8920 heron's nest
  • DSC_8916 heron's nest
  • DSC_8894 heron's nest
  • It's 11:10, five minutes after parent #1 first landed and started feeding the babies then took off, and all is calm once again.
  • DSC_8941 heron's nest
  • Parent number two is just entering my picture frame (you can see its blurry legs in the very upper left hand corner) and now everybody, save for our one eyed chick is up and eager to be fed.
  • It's a typical feeding frenzy and in the confusion of the scrum I couldn't tell if our one eyed chick is in there fighting for food or not. But in the very next shot I can see it isn't even trying to fight for food. If it's been a long time since it last succeeded in gaining some food (very likely), it may be to weak to fight it's bigger siblings for food.
  • DSC_8952 heron's nest
  • DSC_8959 heron's nest
  • DSC_8962 heron's nest
  • With more space to work with you can see our runt sized chick finally able to muscle it's way into the scrum for food. But its still the lowest mouth begging to be fed, and as I haven't noticed any effort on either parents part to see that all chicks get fed equally, it seems that the most aggressive mouth gets the most amount of food. This means that this now undersized probably much weaker chick is in a world of hurt.
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