We were more than a little disappointed when we stopped at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge and discovered it was closed due to recent flooding which meant we couldn’t check out the Night-Heron Rookery.
There aren’t nearly as many Night Heron nesting at the Santa Rosa Rookery, but there were still lots of opportunities for shots of Black-Crowned Night-Heron carrying in nesting material.
I was a little surprised to see this juvenile Night-Heron fly in and out of the rookery, though it never appeared to be carrying nesting material.
The herons flying in and out of the rookery seem largely indifferent to people below (or they wouldn’t be nesting in the middle of a busy street), but this Night-Heron definitely seemed irked at my presence, staring down at me menacingly.
This heron, on the other hand, appeared to be rather cowed
by this Snowy Egret which seemed quite threatening.
It was clear that this was a high-rental area and that prime-nesting sites came at a real premium.