Last Sunday Tom Mizell sent some of us the following note:
"For what its worth, my wife and I were driving back from
Lexington yesterday -4/13 and took what was a back road
for us. We drove east from Lexington and then headed
north on Route 608 which parallels the South River.
About 1 mile south of the Vesuvius post office we saw a
Great Blue Heron on its nest. Initially it was standing
and appeared to be placing a few branches about itself,
then it settled in and we were just able to see its
head. The nest is to the west of 608 and the railroad
tracks, about 100 yards or so and is best initially
observed when driving north. Tom M"
Tom and I went back to Vesuvius today to check on the nest. We
found a large nest in a dead (?) deciduous tree near to the South
River in Rockbridge County (just south of the Augusta County line -
sorry Yulee) just as Tom had described. At first it appeared that
the nest was empty but as Tom watched through the scope, he thought
he saw a head appear above the rim of the nest. After about 10
minutes two adult Great Blue Herons flew into the trees right above
the nest. At this point the female (?) on the nest stuck her head
up so that we could easily indentify her also as an adult Great
Blue. The two adults above the nest sat there for several minutes
before the one flew over and displaced the other one which flew
away. It wasn't a very aggressive display but could be interpreted,
I think, as the male partner chasing off another male. Both of
these "males" were in fine adult plumage although the one which
eventually displaced the other clearly had a more colorful (more
orange) bill.
We will continue to watch the nest to see how successful their
breeding attempt is. The nest appears to be an old one with some
new branches added to it. One wonders if they have being using it
for several years before this.
The location of the nest was well described by Tom above. We
measured it to be almost exactly 1.0 mile south of the Vesuvius Post
Office, which is right at the junction of Routes 56 and 608. As Tom
said if you are driving south on Route 608 from Vesuvius the nest is
on the right (west) side of the road and is most easily seen if you
go beyond it , turn around, and approach it from the south. The
land is posted but the nest is easily observed from the road.
I believe that this may be only the second report of attempted
nesting for Great Blue Herons west of the Blue Ridge?
Clair Mellinger
Biology Department
Eastern Mennonite University
Harrisonburg, VA 22801
mellinac@xxxxxxx
(540) 432-4409
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