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A Siege of Herons

keithboonePosted for Everyone to comment on, 4 years ago2 min read

The collective noun describing a group of herons is a siege.

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With that name in mind, I can tell you that our local park is certainly under siege at the moment! The Great Blue Heron colony has moved back to the park and they have started to pair off and build their nests.

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Here's one tree in the park with a dozen or so herons visible and there are many trees like this.

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In the photo above you can see part of the siege take flight. I had just heard the whistle-like call of a bald eagle and the herons may have been reacting to this.

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In this photo you can see a pair of herons standing beside their nest.

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There is a division of labour between the males and females when it comes to nest building. The females are responsible for the actual construction work...

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...while the males fly around and gather the building materials.

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So the sky is just full of these beautiful birds at this time of year...

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...and you can often find me in the park with my camera, doing my best to capture some of the action.

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Earlier I mentioned that the bald eagles are also active in the area right now. Yesterday I captured this shot of an eagle perched on a branch. The nest is in a tree very close to the heron colony. When the eagles get tired of fish they will often raid the herons nests for a snack.

All photos were taken by me, @keithboone.




I love the collective names for groups of animals and just for fun, I'll list some of the others below...

  • pride of lions
  • murder of crows
  • tower of giraffes
  • romp of otters
  • stench of skunks
  • prickle of porcupines
  • shrewdness of apes
  • pandemonium of parrots

I wonder if these cool collective nouns for animals exist is languages other than english?

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