There is a marsh on the entry road of my local state park which is much wetter this year than years past. This may be the reason I'm seeing nests being built much closer to the park's observation deck than I've seen before. When I got there Saturday I saw 12 pairs working within 50 feet of the deck.

Here's a Great Egret putting in some finishing touches:


This Great Blue Heron pair is nesting not 15 feet from the egret.


The egret left for a few minutes, and here's the heron raiding its nest. No better place to find the perfect nest material than someone else's nest!




Quick! Do something with this before she comes back!