“An adventure is simply a well planned trip gone awry.”
-anonymous

With few free weekends remaining for me in Cortland, NY, my canoeing partner Carol and I planned a trip down our favorite stretch of the Tioghnioga River for Sunday morning. Our usual routine is for Carol to steer and paddle and me to birdwatch . With several inches of recent rain, the river was brown, high, and ripping. We started out but after only a quarter mile, we met our match with a fresh snag accross the river. A little nervous about the speed of the water, we decided to portage back to the car rather than around the snag. It was still early and we were not ready to give up on canoeing so Carol suggested visiting a Great Blue Heron Rookery she knew about. The swamp was not visible from the road so I did not know what to expect but a short portage brought us to an incredible jungle-esque swamp. Fortunately, the swamp had plenty of water to sneak a canoe around the many downed trees. We manuevered very slow and quietly. Birds observed as we approached were Least Flycatcher, Great-crested Flycatcher, Baltimore Oriole, Brown Creeper, Wood duck, and Tree Swallow. In the distance we could hear the squawking of the heron colony. We did not have far to go before the rookery came into view. Just the sight of so many large nests close together out in the open was peculiar. Even more peculiar were the giant herons standing on these nests 40-50ft in the air. Gradually working ourselves closer, the herons did not mind us being there at all. We counted 38 nests with 15-20 adults and at least 10 nestlings. Because Great Blue Herons do not leave the nest until they are full grown, some of the nestlings were rather large and admittedly ugly. A wide range of behaviors were observed including: Adult male plumage-flaring, parents feeding young, sibling rivalry, and plenty of chat-ter and chat-ing.

I had never been to a heron rookery before so it was a rather breath-taking experience and a great study in bird behavior. Thanks to Carol, our busted river trip turned into a memorable morning with the herons.