This picture shows much more than a bunch of nondescript trees with a lot of bird nests. THIS is a rookery! Wikipedia defines a rookery as “a colony of breeding animals.” The term “rookery” is named after a crow-like, European bird, called a Rook (Corvus frugilegus). 

The special aspect of a rookery is the fact that generation after generation of nesting pairs and their offspring return to the same location every year to breed. In this photo above, you can see that both Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) and Great Egrets (Ardea alba) make up this rookery. More specifically, this gathering of herons is sometimes referred to as a “heronry.”

I came across a British news article written in 2003, and I was immediately captivated by the author’s words. The way he wrote about a well-known rookery in an ancient woodland is positively dreamy. I checked the copyright notice, and it would cost me $118 to post the excerpt that I want to share. Yikes. So do us both a favor, and just follow this link and read the first 2 paragraphs. The author is Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor for The Independent.

This Great Blue Heron has a branch, complete with its spring flowers, and is headed right for the rookery.

Here is a closer look…wow. I’m not so sure those are flowers on the twig after all, but maybe they’re the beginnings of leaves. Either way, its a treat to get such a close look at a heron going about the business of building a nest at the same site where he or she may have hatched!

I want to share a page from another old field guide that I have:

I had to find a Roman Numeral converter to figure out that the copyright dates are 1931 and 1941.

“Calling, the heron flies athwart the blue

That sleeps above it; reach on rocky reach

Of water sings by sycamore and beech,

In whose warm shade bloom lilies not a few.”

Excerpt from The Creek Road, by Madison Cawein ¹

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