I am exhausted.

The North Coast Nature Festival--wow, this is an action packed event and it's all free! It's a great event for people in the Cleveland area. There are bird walks, banding, workshops--and it's not just birds. There are wildflower walks, pond study, photography workshops, live animals, everything.

We did our tv segments early this morning and then Non Birding Bill and I rehearsed our show for tomorrow night and then we met up with NBB's friend Kirk.

A few years ago, Kirk sent us photos of a bunch of nests in a tree and asked if we knew what they were--we did. It's a great blue heron rookery. So, Kirk was kind enough to take us to Cuyahoga National Park today to view them. The birds nest right off of the road (not too bothered by humans) and there's a parking area so you can easily pull over and scope them. I had NBB and Kirk stand on the other side to get a sense scale. Note NBB pretending to be a bird watcher by pointing.

According to the signage, the birds should have eggs that are hatching or are about to hatching. Scanning the nests, it appeared that the birds were at various stages in nesting from nest building, to incubating, to feeding chicks. The birds in the above photo are actually two nests side by side. The bird on the right is regurgitating food to some young in the bottom of the nest--barfed up fish and frogs--yum!

I had Kirk check them out through the scope so he could see the yellows of their eyes. Kirk would also like everyone to notice his jacket, he's very proud of it.

Now, I'm off to do some writing and then some much needed sleep.

I did get word from Lorraine that the beehives are feeding well.