6 TeHIE!- AUDUBON? (BU Lo eae 
Nesting Colony of the Egret in Illinois 
By JAMES HODGES 
READERS OF THE Bulletin will be interested to know that a colony of the 
American egret has nested for several years now in Rock Island County, 
Illinois. This paper brings up to date the observations of the colony through 
the season of 1950. 
On June 19, 1949, the author, accompanied by Richard Schaefer, began 
a search for the nests of the American egret which had been reported con- 
stantly by commercial fishermen on the Mississippi river. A nesting colony 
was suspected in 1948 because a few birds were observed during that sum- 
mer; an increase in the number of summer birds in 1949 was indication 
enough that they were nesting in the vicinity. We found the colony on the 
afternoon of June 19th. 
The exact location of the colony is in a forest preserve of virgin timber 
at the very mouth of the Rock river. It is understood that this is an un- 
developed city park, but at the present time the colony is almost unap- 
proachable by land. 
The first thing that was noticed on entering the nesting grounds was 
that the ground was white-washed by the droppings of the birds with the 
addition of egg shells and molted feathers, including some of the head 
plumes. One nestling egret was found dead on the ground, evidently killed 
by the fall from the nest. 
However, the American egrets were not the only residents of this colony, 
as the black-crowned night heron, great blue heron, and several pairs of 
green heron were nesting also. The nests of the black-crowned night heron 
were closer to the river, while those of the American egret and great blue 
heron were more in the center of the colony. A number of the fledgling 
birds that had left the nest had unfortunately entangled their long necks 
in the crotches of the trees; being unable to remove themselves from this 
position, they soon died. 
During July, the Credit Island harbor in Scott County, Iowa, just op- 
posite the nesting site, was always full of these birds, indicating that the 
majority had left the nest. By July 16th I found evidence that the adult 
birds were starting to molt, and by July 28rd very little activity could be 
seen at the nesting site. By August 3rd the colony was deserted and 
migrants were starting to pass through in large numbers. The last American 
egrets were observed on October 22nd, a group of six. 
Fa ft fl 
On November 27, 1949, I returned to the colony to make a study of the 
nests, as the foliage of the trees had made an exact count difficult before. 
In an area of a square city block, 45 trees contained a total of 97 nests, the 
maximum nests in one tree being twelve. There were also about twenty 
more trees in one group with interwoven branches which contained about 
60 nests and another such group containing 40 nests. This makes about 197 
