Closed for season

Breeding activity has concluded. I haven't seen herons at the site for at least a week.

Here is my strictly non-scientific assessment of what happened this year, post-road right-of-way. Initially there seemed to be an increase in heron activity, with new nest construction. Some of the nests, however, were abandoned early on--I'm not sure whether before or after eggs were hatched.

Still, I heard and saw a lot of post hatching activity. Later in the season, though, there appeared to be abandonment of nests, perhaps due to eagle predation as described by Susan.

My theory is that the road provided improved access, for herons and for eagles. This lead to the increase in nest-building activity and the subsequent abandonment of nests, as eagles started feeding on young birds. It will be interesting to get the nest count once the leaves have fallen. But this will not tell us how many of those nests successfully fledged chicks. Toward the end of the season I was only hearing/seeing birds at two nests.