Directly behind the osprey nest at the Lee Metcalf NWR (SW Montana), there is a small Great Blue Heron Rookery. As I watched and photographed the osprey activity at the nest, I was often distracted from the loud and intense squawking that the juvenile herons were making in the rookery nests. Whenever an adult Great Blue Heron would fly back toward the nests, all the juveniles would immediately begin squawking for food!
Here is an image of one tree in the rookery, showing 2 nests:
In the bottom-right of the photo, you can see an adult heron sitting in an empty nest. And at the top of the tree, an adult heron was just preparing to leave the nest … likely to return to fishing. Right below this heron is a juvenile heron, making a lot of noise! In this next photo, I’ve cropped down to show the youngster in the nest as he worked to get his hunger known to his parent:
I really love to photograph the juvenile Great Blue Herons, with their unruly hair! :o)