Great Blue Heron cam

[mellytu74]

I AM LOVING THIS!!!!

[cindy.wellman]

I AM LOVING THIS!!!!

I certainly hope you are not using your current avatar when you are there, missie! lolol


Not that one uses avatars there, but hey...

[MarleysGh0st]

I AM LOVING THIS!!!!

I certainly hope you are not using your current avatar when you are there, missie! lolol


Not that one uses avatars there, but hey...

LOL!

Yeah, folks are mighty upset at the owls over there.

[mellytu74]

I AM LOVING THIS!!!!

I certainly hope you are not using your current avatar when you are there, missie! lolol


Not that one uses avatars there, but hey...

LOL!

Yeah, folks are mighty upset at the owls over there.

No!

A decidedly non-owl avatar.

[MarleysGh0st]

The moderators are learning how to cope with the endless stream of questions about what's going on at the nest. Now they've started a Twitter account to post updates about significant (and not so significant) events.

http://twitter.com/#!/cornellherons

7:35 AM EST 4/20: Dad stands up, fixes interior of nest, settles down

7:32 AM EST 4/20: After Mom brought stick at 7:28 AM, she brings another stick at 7:32 flies off #cornellherons

7:28 AM EST 4/20 Dad stands, turns, Mom arrives with large willow branch and flies off at 7:30 AM

And so forth!

[MarleysGh0st]

Yesterday, the national news was talking about the coastal storm bringing snow to western NY and PA. I checked the weather.com forecast for Ithaca and they said it would just be cold rain.

They were wrong.

The webcam shows about four inches of snow covering the nest. Dad is still there, trying to protect the eggs as best as he could, but this doesn't look good.

This reminds me of the time, four or five years ago, when the Canada geese started nesting early and a late storm dropped six inches of snow on top of them. They had no choice but to abandon the nest and start over.

[christie1111]

Looks like Dad is trying his best to keep them warm and dry.

[MarleysGh0st]

Looks like Dad is trying his best to keep them warm and dry.

Yeah, they may get through this. They say the banks of snow are protecting them from the wind, too.

And to think that last Monday the herons were panting from the 85 degree heat!

[MarleysGh0st]

It's a cold morning in Ithaca, so Mama Heron is sitting tight on the eggs, but there may be a pip showing in one of the eggs. (That's the first hole a chick pokes in the shell, in preparation for hatching.) The excitement in the chat room is building!

[christie1111]

There goes any work I expected to get done today!

[Lizbit]

It's a cold morning in Ithaca, so Mama Heron is sitting tight on the eggs, but there may be a pip showing in one of the eggs. (That's the first hole a chick pokes in the shell, in preparation for hatching.) The excitement in the chat room is building!

Mr. Marley, I am so excited! We are going to have heron babies for my birthday! (I mean they'll be here, not that they'll be on the menu, silly.)

My mom already gave me my first bird books, too. I have the National Audubon Society Field Guide to Birds (Western Region) and Fifty Common Birds of Oklahoma and the Southern Great Plains. When I'm not watching the herons, I like to go out in the yard and figure out what kinds of birds are flying overhead. I've already told Mr. Charles at Cornell that I am considering becoming an ornithologist (if the soldierdogging doesn't work out.) I figure that my only drawback is that I can't climb trees, but lots of 2-footers can't climb trees either, and they probably don't have squirrel friens to do it for them.

[christie1111]

How can they just sit on the eggs when they are about to hatch?

Don't they want to watch?

[MarleysGh0st]

Definitely two eggs with pips!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76931678@N05/6972454916/

Laura posted earlier that it can take 48 hours from the time of making the pip until the chick finishes hatching, so we still need some more patience.

[littlebeast13]

Definitely two eggs with pips!

Let me know when there's three Pips....

lb13

[MarleysGh0st]

Definitely two eggs with pips!

Let me know when there's three Pips....

lb13

Found it!

[MarleysGh0st]

So will ES draw any heron avatars for the big hatching celebration?

Maybe he should start practicing, so we don't get another rainbow donkey.

[littlebeast13]

So will ES draw any heron avatars for the big hatching celebration?

Maybe he should start practicing, so we don't get another rainbow donkey.

The herons will have to coordinate their hatching with the NBA playoff schedule then. It's almost real Rally Squirrel time....

lb13

[christie1111]

They are saying that they think the egg that had a dent the other day now has a pip so maybe there are 3 pips and the dented egg didn't end up killing the baby heron.

That would be good!

[SportsFan68]

Definitely two eggs with pips!

Let me know when there's three Pips....

lb13

Wow! That's incredible!

I want to say "It will win" even as I recognize that nothing can beat Sunchine and Doughnut Erin.

But I still want to say it.

OK. It will win.

OK, maybe it won't win. However they rank, we already have the Top Three.

[littlebeast13]

Definitely two eggs with pips!

Let me know when there's three Pips....

lb13

Wow! That's incredible!

I want to say "It will win" even as I recognize that nothing can beat Sunchine and Doughnut Erin.

But I still want to say it.

OK. It will win.

OK, maybe it won't win. However they rank, we already have the Top Three.

Amazing! The year's only 1/3 of the way over, and we already have the Top 3....

I see ES is gonna have to take that midnight train to Colorado to straighten you out....

lb13

[MarleysGh0st]

We've got a chick!!!

[MarleysGh0st]

Dad helped open the egg, at the end!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/phlegmmy/6 ... otostream/

[Lizbit]

I am so Xcited! I've never seen anything get hatcheded or even bornded before. I feel like Aunt Lizbit now!

I'm sort of glad that the heron chicks aren't all fuzzy, white, and cute like those hawk babies. The little heron is merely naked and beautiful!

A third egg has started pipping, too. It's like a contest, all of a sudden.

[MarleysGh0st]

Here's a screen capture I made, a few minutes after the hatching, when Dad stood up again.

[MarleysGh0st]

TWO chicks!!!