Watch Our New Great Blue Heron Live-Stream!

Say hello to our Great Blue Herons, Heather and Hudson, who have nested 90 feet above the Trevor Zoo’s wallaby and emu enclosure.
The live video stream is the result of a month-long collaboration between the Trevor Zoo staff, alumnus Dan Cohen ’86, and current sixth former John Norfleet. The project is John’s Culminating Experience for Seniors (CES) and was born out of his interest in citizen science and conservation.
 
To bring John’s vision to fruition, many technical hurdles had to be addressed including establishing constant and consistent electrical and Internet connections, which are, of course, quite difficult when installing a camera 90 feet up in the canopy of a spruce tree. Dan Cohen ’86, a professional filmmaker, played an instrumental role in helping John find solutions that guaranteed his projects’ success.
 
Once the technical hurdles had been addressed, the camera still needed to be physically installed atop the tree. A friend of the school, professional arborist and climbing expert Chad Turner, volunteered to install the camera for John. Inch by inch, Chad ascended the tree until he finally reached the top and then attached a pulley system to raise the camera from the ground. Once the camera was raised and mounted to face the heron nest, John was finally able to test the video stream and get a first glimpse into the nest.
 
Within an hour of turning on the camera, Heather and Hudson showed up and continued working on their nest. Since then Heather has laid five eggs, which Trevor Zoo Director Dr. Alan Tousignant believes will begin hatching around May 4th.  In the meantime the herons will continue to build up their nest and take turns incubating the eggs.
 
Take a peek into Heather and Hudson’s nest and watch them as they prepare for the eggs to hatch at: www.millbrook.org/trevorzoolive!

Also, make sure to check out a video of the live-streaming video camera installation on our Millbrook in Motion page, and view photos on our online photo gallery
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