Wednesday, July 20, 2022

A detailed look at Virginia Rails and Great Blue Herons breeding at Lake Wallace


Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 21, 2022
Virginia Rail young, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 22, 2022
Virginia Rail juvenile, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 29, 2022
Virginia Rail juveniles, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 29, 2022
Virginia Rail juveniles, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 8, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 8, 2022
Virginia Rail juveniles, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 8, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 11, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 13, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 13, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 13, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 16, 2022
Virginia Rails, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 16, 2022
Virginia Rail, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 17, 2022

I'll take a look in greater detail at a couple of breeding species at Lake Wallace for the season with the first species being Virginia Rail.  I heard multiple individuals throughout the spring with the species very consistently heard from early April onward with several visits producing more than one individual calling.  I first noticed young birds in late June when the young are totally black and look nothing like an adult.  On July 8th I watched a couple of juvenile birds that would occasionally pop out into view.  At one point I heard a rail call from deeper in the marsh and both juveniles quickly flew up to the higher part of the reeds...perhaps the adult was warning them of some unseen danger?  Who knows?  By this point the juveniles were getting close to adult size and have started to transition to a more adult like plumage.  With each passing the day the juveniles continued to take on more and more of the plumage of an adult.  I had a high count on July 13th with at least three nearly adult size juveniles (including one that stayed in the open for several minutes) plus two adults.  I topped that count on the July 16th when I had at least half a dozen individuals.  It was a treat to get prolonged views of this species over the course of weeks as I watched the young grow.

I got a variety of videos of the rails over the course of the season and have attached them below on the date taken.

June 21st

June 21st

June 22nd

June 29th

July 8th

July 8th

July 8th

July 8th

July 13th

July 13th

July 13th

July 14th

July 16th

July 16th

Great Blue Heron nest building, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 17, 2022
Great Blue Heron on nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, May 10, 2022
Great Blue Heron nest with young, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 10, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 13, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 24, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 26, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 28, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 29, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 3, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 6, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 8, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 9, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 9, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 10, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 11, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 11, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 12, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 13, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest (with large fish, possibly catfish, brought in by adult), Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 15, 2022
Great Blue Heron at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 16, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 16, 2022
Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 17, 2022
Great Blue Heron nest finally empty, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 20, 2022
Great Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 20, 2022

The Great Blue Herons again nested at Lake Wallace after an absence of a few years.  I first noticed nest building in mid April with at least two nest being attempted (only one was completed).   The herons sat on eggs for the next few weeks before I finally saw some young in the nest.  I was able to count three young birds in the nest eventually (a typical number for a Great Blue Heron nest).  

I noticed that one of the nestlings came up missing in late June and I'm not sure what happened to it.  It may have been big enough to leave the nest a little early or it met its demise from a variety of possibilities.  By the start of July the remaining two nestlings were getting to be near adult size and I suspected they would leave the nest in the near future but it still took weeks before they left.

I suspected they would be very close to fledging on July 8th as they were nearly the same size as an adult and when an adult arrived at the nest it did not feed the nestlings but instead stood in the nest with them for a bit before flying off again.

On my way to work on the 11th I stopped early in the morning and found the two nestlings still present.  An adult eventually flew in with a stick in its mouth which it dropped on the nest and one of the nestlings picked up as if to eat it (not sure what that behavior was about).  The begging from the young eventually resulted in the adult feeding them.

I once again expected the herons to have fledged when I stopped on my way home from work on the 12th but the two remaining nestlings were still at the nest site.

The 13th found the two remaining herons still in the nest but with more and more wing exercises and moving away from the nest itself (I was glad to see they made it through the thunderstorms that occurred the evening before).

Over the next couple days the adults continued the two juveniles in the nest including one adult that brought in a massive fish (which looked like a catfish) that one the juveniles swallowed in a single gulp.  An early morning visit on the 16th found only one juvenile in the nest with the other in a nearby tree but a visit a little later in the morning found both juveniles back in the nest again.  The two remained in the nest when I stopped on the morning of the 17th.  

I was not able to make it back again until the morning of the 19th as we began a several day heat wave and I was happy to see the nest was finally empty and the juveniles had fledged.

Like the Virginia Rails I took multiple videos of the Great Blue Heron nest and have attached the links to various videos below.

June 13th










July 14th
Wood Ducks, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 14, 2022
Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 29, 2022
Mallard with ducklings, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 11, 2022
Belted Kingfishers, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 11, 2022
Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 13, 2022
Red winged Blackbird juvenile, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022

In addition to the above mentioned I had a variety of marsh birds and waterfowl that bred at the lake this year or where suspected of breeding there.  Confirmed waterfowl included Canada Geese, Wood Ducks, Mallards and Hooded Mergansers.  I suspect Sora may have bred but I was unable to confirm. I was lucky enough to finally get a look at the Sora on July 13th after a lot of waiting and even got some photos and videos. Sadly the water levels were artificially lowered starting last year with the installation of a beaver deceiver at the outlet of the lake which dropped the water level by over a foot.  I suspect this made the lake less attractive to some marsh birds that have bred here in the past including Pied billed Grebes back in 2020.  Green Herons, Belted Kingfishers, Swamp Sparrows, Red winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles were among the many other species breeding at the lake this year.

Videos of the Sora:

Sora #1

Sora #2

Muskrat, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jun 10, 2022
Raccoon, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 13, 2022
Painted Turtle, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022
Bullfrog eating another bullfrog, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 14, 2022

My time spent watching the various nesting birds also turned up some great looks at mammals with the highlights being River Otters (videos #1, #2 and #3), Beavers, Muskrats and Raccoons (video #1 and #2).  There were also tons of frogs and turtles around with an unusual sight of a large bullfrog eating another bullfrog.  I got several videos of the bullfrog eating another bullfrog (videos #1, #2, #3).


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4 comments:

  1. KevinJuly 21, 2022 at 5:39 PM

    I like river otters a lot too though I have not seen any this year. What kind of camera are you using, I saw a circle in the corner kind of like a digiscope?

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    Replies
    1. LarryJuly 22, 2022 at 2:19 PM

      River Otters are great for sure. All the photos and videos in this post are digiscoped through a Kowa scope with an iPhone SE...my regular camera is a Canon 7D but not for this post.

      Delete
  2. kevinJuly 24, 2022 at 9:39 AM

    They came out really good. I did get some videos of the otters this morning. They seemed to be interacting with a beaver in some way which was interesting

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    Replies
    1. LarryJuly 24, 2022 at 2:05 PM

      I'm always amazed what you can get with just a phone and a scope. Always fun to see interspecies interactions.

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