Juvenile herons running off the grownups

[wfooshee]

A LOT of pictures in this post, but I watched a LOT of this yesterday. I'd seen this behavior last year and have seen it over the last couple of weeks this year, but yesterday I was lucky enough to have it happen fairly close by rather than off in the distance. (Click images for 1280-size.)

Here's a Little Blue Heron in flight:


When I say "in flight" I mean in the sense of fleeing! He's being chased by a juvenile Little Blue Heron which has developed an attitude problem towards the grownups, it seems:


One of the juveys standing guard, as it were....


An adult minding his own business:


You know it's coming.......


And it starts!






And escaped for a rest!


Aw, man!!! Here they come again!






And STAY out!!!!


Here's an adult Tri-colored Heron flying past a couple of juvenile Tri-coloreds:


Settling into place peacefully....


And here comes that brat kid!




Stomp his head down and make your escape:




Meanwhile, our Little Blue friend is not getting any rest:






BANDITS!!!!! BANDITS ON MY 6!!!!! I CAN'T SHAKE 'EM!!!!



Now whenever I'd seen this before, the juveniles chasing the adults off, I thought it must be some kind of territorial thing. I'd see them come to an adult, sometimes two or three youngsters on one adult, peck at each other, and the adult would fly off with the youngsters chasing after.

Seeing it close by this time, and seeing that the little ones are grabbing at the beak, I'm thinking they're just trying to get fed. Maybe they haven't quite gotten used to the whole fend-for-yourself thing, yet.

[CaraRose]

Great series, and it totally cracked me up.

[Grandpaw]

Great series of photos!!!! The captions are great and really let us know what is going on. Enjoyed the post!!!!