Blue Heron - Nesting Update 7

Over on the beaver pond south of Berkshire School Road, Great Blue Heron chicks grow quickly as parents bring abundant fish and other reptilian bits to increasingly active fuzz balls of down. The changing of the guard seems practiced now, with the returning parent alighting on the nest of sticks as the other drops away to glide down to hunt on their pond or to first stretch a bit and then fly to another nearby pantry, perhaps an oxbow in the Housatonic or the closer Mill Pond or one of many nearby beaver ponds.
The sudden activity stirs the chicks to raise their wobbly heads and open their lengthening beaks to beg for attention and food, which comes in abundance from the parent's crop as it leans down and presents its beak to chicks who vie for the morsels.
Not all of the catch is small enough for chicks, so the parent will vomit a large whole fish into the nest in order to keep up the supply of lesser food. After a bit, bellies momentarily full, the chicks nap as the parent reswallows the big fish and then stands by, preening its plumage.