Great blue herons take a liking to Rogersville
A great blue heron flies along the sycamore trees near the rookery in Rogersville.
The great blue herons nest in sycamore trees along a creek in Rogersville. The birds eat fish, water snakes, frogs and mice.
A great blue heron flies through the air by a rookery in Rogersville, where about 30 herons occupy the sycamore trees alongside a creek.
A great blue heron flies among the sycamore trees near the rookery in Rogersville. The herons can be 38 inches long and have wingspans of 70 inches wide.
The male heron gathers materials for the nest and bring them back to the female, who constructs the nest. The female and male heron switch off on nesting duties of three to six eggs per nest.
Jeremy Febinger, a Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife conservation officer, stands in front of great blue heron nests made in sycamore trees in Rogersville.
ROGERSVILLE – Majestic great blue herons have taken a liking to the residents of a village in Greene County, even though this species typically establishes colonies far away from people and predators.
Each spring as many as 30 of the stately migratory birds return to a creek running through Rogersville, where they’ve built a rookery atop tall sycamore trees.
“The only thing I can think of is there has to be a good food source here,” said Jeremy Febinger, a Pennsylvania Game Commission wildlife conservation officer assigned to Greene.
“If they become agitated by people they will abandon a rookery,” Febinger said.
No one is allowed any closer than 300 feet to such rookeries, or breeding grounds, and the 250 residents of this village respect that “standoff distance” from the nests, he said.
Rogersville residents are aware their town is home to something special in terms of the rookery along Lightner Run, Febinger said.
“I love them,” said Melissa Wasson, a clerk in Rush Grocery in Rogersville. “They’re beautiful. They’re just so majestic.”
“To me the herons are part of the heritage of this county,” said Buzz Walters, a retired schoolteacher who owns Walters Take Down Tire Shop in the village.
“It’s interesting when the young are hatching. There is a lot of noise and activity,” Walters said.
He said hawks circle the nests looking for dinner after the eggs hatch.
“They’re graceful. They glide around like an airplane,” Walters said.
The town seven miles southwest of Waynesburg is believed to have the only great blue heron rookery in Washington and Greene counties, the commission said.
The blue-gray bird weighs as much as seven pounds, making it the largest heron in Pennsylvania, where it is considered a protected species. They can be 38 inches long and have wingspans of 70 inches.
“These birds are special because of their size and the way they hunt,” Febinger said. “They are a really cool bird to watch.”
Herons feed on fish 12 inches long, water snakes, crayfish, frogs, mice and shrews.
They hunt solo while standing as still as a statue, oftentimes while wading in shallow water. They stab their prey with their bills, using their neck like a hammer that moves at the speed of lightning.
They fly at a speed of about 25 mph with their long necks tucked into the shape of the letter S, and their long legs trailing stiff and straight.
Febinger said herons seen during the summer in Peters Township, 40 miles north of Rogersville, and along the Monongahela River near Donora in Washington County likely are part of the Greene colony. The birds are known to fly great distances to hunt, he said.
Pairs of them are known to incubate their eggs off to themselves, but it’s more common for them to establish rookeries where they can help to protect each other’s eggs and hatchlings from predators, he said.
They nest in Rogersville during March and April. The males provide the sticks and the females do all of the work, using the building materials to construct the nests.
The incubation period lasts for 28 days while the males and females take turns nesting on between three and six eggs per nest. The young are ready to leave the nest to live on their own within two months.
The adult birds come through Rogersville in March and April and return between July and October before migrating, Febinger said.