THE DIVING AND WADING BIRD ROOKERY

Below are photographs of a large rookery that contains most of the wading birds in East Tennessee as well as Black Crowned Night Heron, Green Heron, Great Blue Heron and the beautiful Great Egret.  They reside together in the same trees and are amazing to study and watch.

 Above.  The excrement from the cormorant is highly acidic and will kill the very trees they roost in.  The ground will be devoid of plant life in short order.  Its the way of nature.

 Cormorants come in shades of gray and/or black.

 Cormorants sharing the rookery with other diving and wading birds.  

 A parent is undergoing the ritual of feeding her youngster who is the bird on the right.

 The baby on the right rubs the neck and beak of the parent to instigate the regurgitation of food.

 Below:  a group of newborn youngsters takes a swim for the first time

 Above, a great egret contrasts with a cormorant in the same tree

 Great Egrets above fly into the rookery to feed their young while a double-crested cormorant heads out to open water to catch dinner for his family.