I stopped my bicycle under the shade of one of the oak trees laden with egret nests. Would today be the day that the hatchlings finally made their appearance? Since January, in the trees above Alabama Drive at Kraft Azalea Gardens, the egret pairs have been meticulously constructing their rookeries.
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A newborn great egret stretches his wing above a sibling as Dad or Mom stands guarding the nest. -
One of three egret hatchlings in one of the many nests at Winter Park's Kraft Azalea Gardens along the shores of Lake Maitland. -
An egret hatchling mistakes a sibling's beak as the source of his or her next meal. -
Two of three egret hatchlings play Janus in their Winter Park rookery. -
A dinosauresque egret hatchling gives us his scary stare.
(click photo to enlarge)
The late afternoon sun diffused over the chartreuse leaf canopy. Gazing up at one of the nests, occupied by one of the two adults, I looked for any signs of the babies emerging above the line of interwoven sticks. The wind stirred. For a split-second I thought I saw a head move. Was it just a leaf or had I caught my first site of this year’s baby egrets? Yes… No… Yes!
As I learned in course of the afternoon, if I had been listening instead of looking, I would have known that the hatchlings had indeed hatched. The incessant two-syllable croak easily becomes “feed-me feed-me” in the human ear (you can hear it in the video below). A man who walks daily in the neighborhood approached me where I had set up my camera. As I pointed out three chicks in one of the nests, we discussed when the hatchlings had arrived.
“I was here a few days ago,” I said, “and did not see any then.”
He responded that today was the first day that he had heard the “feed me” chorus.
As you can see in the photos and video, the hatchlings seem a bit large to have been born just today. Are they born so big? Or does it take a few days for them to grow large enough to learn the survival song and show themselves to the world?
The song will only get louder in the coming weeks as the young birds grow and cry for more and more food. The patient parent that returns from foraging with food for the nestlings is immediately assailed by the young who lunge at the adults beak and latch onto it with their beaks. The parents work tirelessly as a team. While one is out finding food, the other guards the nest.
I look forward to the weeks ahead, watching the hatchlings grow and, eventually, begin to learn to fly. Stay tuned for updates.
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