Is this unusual - for birders

[dragoncjo]

Up where I work on the Millstone River there has been like 10-20 Great Blue Herons standing on the ice at the edge of the frozen/non frozen areas. They have been there this whole week. Also there has been a couple bald eagles perched on branches there as well. I've never seen this many herons in a fairly suburban area before. Is this unusual in the winter?

 

[Teegate]

I don't usually do this but is that Millstone?

Guy

 

[GermanG]

Whenever much of the water ices up, water birds of all types concentrate near whatever open water still exists. That not only includes wading birds and waterfowl, but also fish eating raptors, like eagles. Bird watchers and hunters end up with fewer places to find birds but more variety and numbers where they do find them.

 

[46er]

Very common in winter. I've seen up to 50 clustered together at Forsythe NWR during the winter months. Toward spring they begin looking pretty beat up.

 

[manumuskin]

German
thats what i was going to say.I bet theres fish in that thar water.If the water is stagnant and getting low in oxygen and the fish are not dormant they may even be coming to the surface to gulp air and getting snagged by the birds.
I know a guy who said he once saw 20- water snakes gathered at the base of lummistown dam in a real dry summer when only a trickle of water was coming over the dam and splattering on the concrete below.He said that fish were jumping the dam and flapping around on the concrete and the snakes were there gobbling them up.That would have been so cool to see.
Al

 

[PancoastDrifter]

Tuckerton Lake is one of the few places not frozen around here right now and there must be 100 Hooded Mergansers concentrated there with hundreds of other birds. (plus you can't hunt there) It happens every year.

 

[dragoncjo]

Thanks Guy, that first sentence had all sorts of errors, must have been half asleep.

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I figured it wasn't to out of the ordinary but something I've never seen. I did notice the birds were real aggressive with each other so there must have some fish there.