The Kids Are Growing Up!

The older Great Blue Heron chicks are now beginning to leave the nest, and more will soon follow. Before long, the heron rookery located at Devil’s Lake State Park’s south shore group camp will go quiet for another year. Oh year, and that fawn we’ve been watching is getting pretty big now too!

Critter Cam Check

Since 2015 we’ve had trail cameras out around Devil’s Lake State Park’s more “wild” areas. Today’s clips were taken over the last month at one of them. Have a look at the fawn, then compare it to this clip from just over a month ago. Those fawns sure grow up fast!

You’ll also see a buck in this clip with rounded fuzzy antlers. The “fuzzy” bit is often called velvet and provides nutrition and growth to deer antlers. Velvet is a type of skin, full of blood vessels and nerves, that regenerates every year. White-Tail Deer antlers generally grow from late March to August. Once their antlers are fully grown, the “velvet” will begin to peel off. Usually, by late September, the deer will have the shiny, pointed antlers we are accustomed to seeing.

Heron Chicks

Here’s a bit of video I grabbed on July 9th. These are both chicks, but as you can see they are pretty big now and will fledge or leave the nest at any time. Generally, when they leave the nest, they’ll still hang out in the area until they migrate south for the winter months.

Sadly, less than 25% of heron chicks survive their first year. They have to learn to forage for food and avoid predators on their own and often are not successful. The ones that do survive their first year will mature after about 2 years and then will often return to their home rookery to start their own families. So if the chicks in this video survive, they will most likely return to the rookery at Devil’s Lake State Park in 2021.