Great Blue Heron Rookery and Upper Mount Bethel Township ~ April 21, 2025

Kathy Sieminski sent me a message telling me about a Great Blue Heron rookery in Stockertown, so I stopped at the spot to check it out. At this large rookery, I counted 26 nests with at least 18 nests occupied by birds at the time and several others coming and going. It's on private property, which is a good thing for the birds' sake, and can only be viewed at a distance from Sullivan Trail. Here are a bunch of photos I took of the area from the road.

The Great Blue Heron rookery.

And here are some cropped photos of some of the birds at their nests.

Great Blue Herons at their nests.

I left there and drove up to East Bangor Dam to see if I could find the Marsh Wren that Megan Davis had found this morning. I got there around 5:00 and either the bird had moved on or just wasn't calling. I did see 6 Wood Ducks, a Hooded Merganser, a Great Blue Heron, 2 Swamp Sparrows, and a Yellow-rumed Warbler plus heard Brown Thrasher.

I left there and stopped at Lake Minsi where I saw 3 Ring-necked Ducks, 4 Pied-billed Grebes, 11 Double-crested Cormorants, 3 Ospreys, and 6 Purple Martins.

Purple Martin

I returned to East Bangor Dam about an hour before sunset to give the Marsh Wren one more try but was unsuccessful, although I did hear the Sora call once while I was there in the same general area I heard it last night. I had to get back home, so I left well before sunset.

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