I’m sorry to report that smallest of the Green Heron hatchlings has died.  Cal Vornberger, the gifted wildlife photographer and author/photographer of Birds of Central Park, witnessed the death and has a compelling set of photographs on his blog, www.calvorn.com.  Cal has put together a slide show of the photographs at http://www.calvorn.com/herons.html.

It’s been raining in New York, so I was unable to go out birding on Friday.  Today, there was a small window between rain showers to see how the Green Herons were doing.  The hatchlings seem to be doing just fine, spending most of their time sleeping.

When I arrived the hatchlings were alone on the nest.  A parent arrived after about twenty minutes, feed the chicks, and then tucked them in for the night.

For those who have been worried that the upcoming summer and fall construction projects in Central Park will interfere with the Green Heron nest, I wanted to pass along some good news. The Parks Department is fully aware of the Green Heron’s nest and construction/gardening project timetables have been revised to minimize the impact on the area around the nest.

As birders and photographers, we also need to do our part.  Those of us who know where the nest is located need to keep our distance and minimize our impact on herons.  Although my pictures may look like I was close to the nest, I was about 150 feet away from the nest to minimize impact on the herons.  Please stay a safe distance from the nest and keep the noise levels down when observing them.

I must say that the little heron chicks have me hooked.  The first two pictures are from Saturday and the rest are from Sunday.

Please be careful not to disturb the herons if you visit the nest.  A group of birders at around 3:30 p.m. on Sunday made a great deal of noise and two of them walked down off the western path to within 15 feet of the nest.  One of the parents, who had been feeding the young, puffed up to a large size, raised its crown and flew off the nest for 15 minutes.  The parent didn’t return to the nest and resume feeding until the birders left the area.

On Thursday evening, one of the Green Heron parents was still sitting on the nest, so I suspect the last chick hatched sometime on late Thursday evening/Friday morning.  These pictures are from Saturday morning.

The parents have stopped sitting on the nest, so I think four is going to be our final hatchling count.