Since early April, I've been sticking my beak daily into a great blue heron nest camera set up and monitored by the Cornell Ornithology Lab in Ithaca, New York. For several cold weeks in April, I watched as a pair of great blue herons lay five eggs and brooded them in all sorts of inclement weathers. One morning, I tuned in to find mom hunkered down in a bowl of snow, the nest buried, the temperature, 27 degrees. I worried about her all day, so much that I kept the classroom computer tuned to the cam. Late in April, the eggs began to hatch in the order they were laid. The last egg, Number 5, pipped out on May 2nd.
In addition to freezing temperatures, nights of snow and days of cold rain, the heron couple have had to defend their nest against multiple midnight owl attacks. Mom lost some head feathers during one attack, and an egg was dented during another, but hatched. So far, no chicks have been harmed.
In the early morning, the woods and pond below the nest are filled with bird song. The night sounds are all peepers and bull frogs. Two cams are trained on the nest: one is stationary, and gives a close-up side view of the chicks, the other cam is overhead, and can be manipulated. At various points during the day, a lab monitor focuses the second cam on the parents as they fish, bathe, and gather fresh nesting sticks in the pond and woods below. Sometimes this cam is focused on the parent heron as they stand guard on a branch over the nest. I am undone by the dignity and beauty of this, of their natural equanimity and patience.
Not long after the chicks hatched, I began taking screen shots on my computer and drawing from them. It’s been fun watching how fast the chicks grow, onscreen and in my sketches. They began life appearing as punk mohawked bobble-heads. Now they look like small adult herons, even though they have not yet learned to fly or catch fish. Their parents urp up fish for them, the urp stimulated by the chicks yanking on the parent’s bill, a kind of noisy clacking theater when all five grab at once. They sleep in a sweet snuggled pile, using one another as pillows, dreaming of what, I wonder.
The world might be a much nicer place if we played by bird rules: take only what is needed, delight in unexpected opportunity, sing in the morning, preen, be fierce when necessary, know our place in nature, dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to caring for our young, and when it is time to go, leave without a trace.
A video of feeding time is here, and the cam here. Some of my sketches follow. I tried to keep them in chronological order.
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jlsathre
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Comments
wish we could click on them and see them bigger
I've been doing a sketch every day...will post today's later, and dedicate to you.
clay ball...thank you for your thank you.
jeanette...last year I was glued to an owl cam, and the Cornell site also has a red tailed hawk cam. Big time meat eaters, like your eagles. It was interesting watching the owlets last year vs watching the herons this year. It got so the sight of sweet owlets tearing into half live baby rabbits was no big deal. Watching the herons this year, owls are the enemy. Anthropomorphisis is weird :-/
Phyllis...yes, I wonder that all the time, what is going through their bird minds.
Amy...reality bird tv! Just like that, only no ads. No monthly 'bills'.
Okay, I have to go...back later this evening.
Lezlie
Incredible... all this.
My gf got some fantastic pics of a great blue this weekend at the lake we camped and fished at. Going to encourage her to publish them here.
Love the sketches!
I adore birds--I had 10 finches at one time, but had to sell them when I moved...
The drawings are so awesome! I really like the paper and how the white highlights pop out from the page.
She resides on`Lover Lane.
`
Here those Birders act so goofy.
Birders follow migratory larks.
They watch a White Crane bird.
`
Birders say`Something is odd-strange.
There was a freeze frost this morning.
There's also a fragrant tropical breeze.
`
My son Loved `Ithaca and Cornell too.
He thinks anyone can draw if they try.
I do not agree. Fold can't read my writ.
If I send a handwritten letter it's sent back.
I'm told my penmanship is like Tink's blog.
I like Tink's Blog. He thinks he fishy stinks.
`
This is True. In Canada I bought deer lure.
I could not resist. It's `Tink 69's Buck lure.
I bought one jar. I'll squirt in my PU truck.
`
gaud . . .
solitude.
caution.
`
If we're gregarious it's dangerous.
Solitude is dangerously enjoyable.
Maybe I'll become a Trappist monk.
R♥
nilesite.....thank you. My feelings about JJ are so mixed. One one hand, those images are incredible when seen firsthand....so much happening that doesn’t come through in reproductions. On the other, he killed bags and bags of birds, carted them back to his studio, strung them up on wires in ‘lifelike’ poses (once you know that, you understand why they always look a little wrong), then painted them. I feel really lucky to live at a time when we can watch live birds on a computer camera instead. JJ would have done that too, had the technology allowed.
Erica K......thank you for the compliment.
aim...thank you! They do allow you commune with them, don’t they? That slow, sure footed, still way they have, contrasted with their lightening speed when they go for a fish. Seeing them from a kayak is much funner than a computer screen, because you get to do the inter-specie eye-lock.
Lezlie....because for a week or so, he was so tiny, was the last egg to hatch. Also, his parents would urp fish right next to him, to make sure he got some–although what he often got was trampled and pecked by his bigger sibs. I can’t tell which one he is anymore, although I suspect when only one is screeching, that would be him.
tr ig...thank you. Yes...please tell her to share her pix. One can never get enough heron.
designanator....thank you for suggesting that. I filled out a survey monkey questionnaire about the cams that Cornell had on the site a few weeks ago, and wondered if they’d be interested in seeing the sketches. Maybe I will send them a link to here.
Pensive Person...I like your name/avatar! Ten finches are a lot of finches. I have a bird companion of 23 years, a feisty cockatiel named Fran, who gives me the stink eye and poops in my coffee. I adore her. The paper in the sketchbook is Trader Joe’s grocery bags that were once crammed between my fridge and cabinet.
sophieh....so cute you are. Happy, thank you too.
Oryoki....it is a beautiful way to start the day. End it too. I get in a few minutes every night before bed. It’s lovely when there is moonlight on the nest.
Lea....thank you!
Art James....your son is correct....anyone can learn to draw. First, they have to learn to see, which you already can, so you are halfway there. I hear you about the monk thing, would be very very attractive prospect, eh?
Deborah.....thank you for the delightful comment. I need to get over to your blog, as I see you are featured in the Most Viewed and I don’t know you yet.
Fusun....thank you for stopping and looking.
nana....thank you. Nice fish you caught there on the fishing excursion! It would almost feed one of the heron chicks. Sorry. Could not resist. How’s the sunburn?
love the baby with his head back...
Tres Cool!
Great philosophy and paragraph ...
"The world might be a much nicer place if we played by bird rules: take only what is needed, delight in unexpected opportunity, sing in the morning, preen, be fierce when necessary, know our place in nature, dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to caring for our young, and when it is time to go, leave without a trace."
Thanks for sharing your talent.
The Nothing is cuter than this one is particularly Crazy.
I want that book ; you have no idea.
& I love that site, thankyou.
I like your book too -- I might have to copy that : )
And is that gouache I see along with graphite in your sketches?
Yet another fascinating post!
very much rated
rita...thank you. Until they grew bigger, they did that when waiting for The Big Beak to dispense food. Like when the family dog sits and looks up at you waiting for food in his bowl.
Scarlett....hi! Thank you for the nice words.
Kim...you can make yourself one of those books. It’s grocery bags cut and bound into a sketchbook. You just need a needle, dental floss, and some glue, a little tyvek for the spine. I’ve made my own sketchbooks for many years, instead of depending upon whatever Mr. Strathmore offers, or those precious little moleskins, which frighten me enough to prevent a healthy sketch practice. Did you visit the site yesterday? Big thunderstorm with hail and high winds. I watched a little, then couldn’t take any more. They are there this morning though. Do you see them in the dark, because it is your day when it is our night?
Just Thinking.....yes, Papa Heron. He is so dedicated to his nest, I’m just in love with him. While you’re making your new sketchbook, you still owe us a pirate drawing, missy. That might make a nice first page!
scanner...thank you!
Poor Woman...thank you. Yes, sketchbook is handmade, with grocery/shopping bags, which make a terrific sketching surface. Sketched these with colored pencils and my dad’s fountain pen, filled with sepia ink.
(I loved being called "Missy" there, like a full-on time warp.)
On those moleskines? Son gave me one for Christmas...I liked his thought for me -- the pages are so slick and thin and small-sized though, I will say since he's not here.
I want to know how you made it so I can maybe try something similar, but with a different "flavor." Book board? Rice paste? What is your cover like? The format? Dimensions? How do you calculate the right way to cut your bags into pages? I love it so much!
Poor Woman...yes, all that stuff. The structure directions for this particular book are too lengthy to put down here. I teach the artist books class at my college, and we start with this structure, so I have a dozen from the demos, and use them as sketchbooks. It’s a terrific beginning book to make, because it’s nearly impossible to blow it in terms of technique. Can you get Wondra brand flour where you live? It’s cheaper than rice starch and just as good for this project, easier to make as well. If you make one, post your results!
Laura...if you can’t get the site to load, try a You Tube search for Cornell nest cams. There are lots and lots of videos there of various nest moments. Dad urping up a live goldfish that thrashes about and confuses all witnesses is a very good one.
The tiniest of a different kind of litter is curled up here, sound asleep against my arm ... so only these few words for now. Wait ... these ... and deepest thanks ...
I tried to post the little icon, but am a technological peasant, too confused to do so.
anna1liese....you left a lovely poem. Thank you.
Lunchlady2...thank you too.
Lezlie
Thanks about the book-binding. Moleskines are more in their element travelling, I think.
I'm delighted to read it's your dad's old fountain pen here, & that's one very soft white pencil you've got ~ I thought it was a pastel !
Sadly my Flash Player is down & I can't figure it out, so I've been missing the news from the nest. Glad to hear all's well.
so very quiet ... here ...
except to come back to your sketchbook ...
and how you help us ...
see ...
What a tremendous post on so very many levels. Your drawings are wondrous, miraculous... your gentle words are steeped in wisdom: "The world might be a much nicer place if we played by bird rules: take only what is needed, delight in unexpected opportunity, sing in the morning, preen, be fierce when necessary, know our place in nature, dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to caring for our young, and when it is time to go, leave without a trace." Rated with admiration.