Every year around Valentine’s Day, hundreds of great blue herons (Ardea herodias) descend upon the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Northeast Ohio to engage in their annual courtship and mating rituals. The birds build their nests in communal rookeries called heronries. Heronries typically appear in secluded areas, and the birds are ordinarily cautious and skittish. They’re usually surrounded by marshland, and observable only by the most intrepid birdwatchers. The Bath Road Heronry is unusual because of its proximity to the busy highway between Riverview and Akron-Penninsula Roads. It affords people…
