They're Back!

I could hear them squawking this morning outside our house. They're back! 'They' is a rookery of Yellow Crowned Night Heron. This evening I counted five of the squatty gray birds in the live oaks. I think they are interesting. My neighbors think they are pests and would give almost anything to be rid of them.

The difference in the attitudes is that the birds live in my neighbors trees, not mine. If this season is like the past several, we can count on the sidwalks and street turning white from the guano, and there will be minnows and parts of shellfish all over the yards. We will also meet several of the juveniles up close and personal after they fall out of the trees.

We live in Huntington Village in the Alief area of Southwest Houston. Keegans Bayou (OK, it's a drainage ditch!) is less than a quarter mile as the heron flies. The bayou hosts several other species of heron and crane. The night heron is absolutely the ugliest, but it has character.

Last year the massive live oak trees hosted about 10 nesting pair of these dark gray, squatty birds with the orange legs.

Getting decent pictures of them is a challenge. I will try to improve as the season goes on.