New GB Heron colony?

[Gord]

Recently I was at the end of #3 Road in Abbotsford at the little park (McDonald Park?) that runs alongside the Sumas River. Up in the cottonwoods I was surprised to see four Great Blue Heron nests, each with an adult on it and several others perched near by. Three of the nests were good size while the other seemed to be still in construction mode possibly indicating that the other three were built last year or even previously.

A new colony is certainly of note and very worth monitoring. The road in the park and picnic tables pretty much runs right under the nests so I wonder how they will handle disturbance. Anyone picnicking under the nests could be in for a gross surprise if the the young in the nest get frightened and regurgitate their meal in defense on the 'threat'.

I wonder who runs that park and if they'd be open to a minor rearrangement of the park to move the tables and maybe prevent vehicles driving under the trees at that side of the park during breeding season.

[lucy]

We visited this same park on Friday and saw the Heron nesting in the trees just above the picnic area too. The Heron were flying to the opposite bank and getting sticks for their nests. We had never been there before, so didn't know if they used these trees every year or not. It looks like somebody has been cutting out roots that have come through the lawn area and that other trees are going to be coming down at some time too. I think moving the tables to the other side of the parking lot, or at the very least, closing that side until nesting season is over would be the proper thing to do, for the sake of the birds and picknikers alike. Sue

[Deleted]

McDonald Park is an Abbotsford city park. Gord, do you know any Abbotsford parks staff? Someone should make sure they know about this. Great Blue Herons have definitely not nested there in the last few years.

I was there a couple of weeks ago walking the dykes to check for any new raptor nests for this year, and I noticed about 6 herons roosting up in the trees, but I didn't see any nests (although it was late in the day and getting a bit dark and I was in a hurry), so I think these nests are all very recent.

I definitely think they should be given formal and informal protection from disturbance. The local subspecies of Great Blue Heron is Blue Listed in BC as of concern. See www.env.gov.bc.ca/wld/documents/heron_s.pdf

It will be exciting to see how this new heronry develops.

Stan Olson
Abbotsford

[Gord]

I will contact them and see what response we get in regards to making an effort for this colony's wellbeing.

[Gord]

I wrote the City of Abbotsford parks and got a response to my email. All I have at the moment is that the information was well received and will be discussed with the appropriate persons.

[neepgrin]

Wow, i am so impressed with all of you. The speed with which you have displayed in concern and caring for this new colony is spectacular. It is fantastic that a small group of citizens can locate, arrange, inform and mobilize protection for these creatures in such a swift and effective manner. I "tip my hat" to you all. Congratz and Thank you for all your efforts to preserve and protect.

Continue to inspire us.

[Deleted]

Thanks, Gord. I hope the city will do what they can to ensure as little disturbance as possible of these nests.

I have submitted a few nest record cards to the BC Nest Record Scheme over the last few years, including records for a small heronry that developed in Langley along the Salmon River and only lasted 3 or 4 years. I still have some of the special cards for reporting colony nesting species. I've gone to McDonald Park and filled in a card for these nests three times now. I'll continue to monitor their progress and record data for the nests, and send in the cards to Victoria after the nesting season.

If anyone else sees any interesting happenings at the nests, please take note, especially any counts of young (per nest), any predator interactions, any mortality of adults or young, any young fledging from the nests, etc., and let me know. One object of the nest record program is to record the success or failure of the nests, in terms of successful fledging of young. I can't be there that often, so the more eyes the better.

There are four nests, and all appear to be active. On Tuesday there was a pair of adult herons on each of the nests. On two of the nests, there was an adult apparently laying or incubating and a second adult standing nearby. On the other two nests, adults were bringing sticks and adding them to the nest. There was a ninth adult standing in a tree near the nests, with unknown motives or plans. I have numbered the nests from 1 to 4, with 4 being the nearest to the park entrance.

There are usually other people there taking an interest in the nests, too. And a helicopter was flying around the area quite low, so I hope it didn't stress the herons.

The nests look so flimsy and the location so precarious, it always seems like a hazardous adventure, especially with eagles and ravens frequenting that area next to the mountain, with potential for predation of the nests. That's what happened to the Langley colony every year until they gave up. Let's hope they can make a success of it here.

Stan

[Gord]

I got a reply from a Species at Risk Biologist with the Ministry of Environment asking questions about the colony. Sounds like any and all observations will be well received as things progress.

[Gord]

Some new developments from when I stopped by this afternoon.

A fifth nest, in the early stages of construction, has appeared between nest #1 and #2. To me, nest #1, which was the smallest of the original four, is of the same size now as all but the new one (nest #5?) This new nest had an adult, maybe the ninth adult Stan reported, standing on it who a couple times rearranged a few sticks. Nests #1 and #2 both had adults sitting low in the nest. I could not see any adults in the other two, both with binoculars or reviewing the photographs I took.

The park was rather busy with a few guys fishing just to the west of the nests and a car idling right across from them on the road. A noisy Trans Am car, obviously minus a muffler (of any use to the term 'muffler' anyway), went by to no noticeable distress to the herons. Perhaps these birds will be tolerant to disturbance much like the Stanley Park colony.

A picture of the new nest and nest #1 with an adult sitting tight on it (laying or incubating?)

[Deleted]

Neat, Gord.

I was about to go there to look again when I saw your message. I had planned to check each week on Monday or soon after, but if you're going to check on weekends, maybe I should aim to check midweek? Anyone else checking these nests on a regular basis?

I have not established the nest numbering in any set way, and just suggested the numbers to facilitate easy communication among us, so let's use #1 to #5 in sequence from left to right as observed from the turn-around loop at the end of the road, which seems like the best vantage point. This makes the new one #2 and renumbers #2 thru #4 as #3 thru #5. If any more nests appear, we can renumber again. I assume there won't be any new nests later on in the nesting season when there should be more action to report, so there shouldn't be confusion with numbers.

I am aware that there may be other ways to report these nests beside the provincial Nest Record Scheme (and I know there's some controversy attached there). Are there other channels we should be reporting through? MoE? What kind of citizen reporting occurs with the big heronry at the Vedder?

The WiTS (Wildlife Tree Stewardship) program is returning to Abbotsford in combination with the raptor nest monitoring program that some of us have been doing, and I will be reporting these nests and trees through that channel also, I assume.

Thanks,

Stan

[Deleted]

I've been checking on the heron nests at McDonald Park about every 5 days, and there have consistently been 5 nests with herons incubating. Yesterday I found that there are 2 new nests under construction among the others, for a total of seven active nests.

I also checked again the nests reported by Thor and Murray near Barrowtown pump station, but I have never seen any herons there. The four nests remain in various stages of completion.

Stan

[Gord]

An update.

This afternoon I stopped in quickly for a look. Right away I could hear the calls of young herons so I knew there is some success being had here.

I looked for the nests among the leaves and was able to find six of them. Four contained young. As I was not there to see the two new nests that Stan located I did not know where to look among the leaves.

This is what I could see of the nests I could view. As I only found six nests, my numbering might be off. I think the first three as the proper number. Stan will know.

Nest #1 had one young.
Nest #2 had two young.
Nest #3 none visible (but lots of droppings...perhaps early fledged or, more likely, lost to predation?)
Nest #4? none visible.
Nest #5? two young.
Nest #6? one young.

Fantastic to see them doing well!

Photos to come.

[Deleted]

Hi, folks.

All seven heron nests at McDonald Park are still active. Five have young in them and the other two appear to have young, by the actions of the adults associated with them. I checked them on Thursday and spent a couple of hours getting looks at each, from different angles, ensuring I wasn't seeing the same nest from different angles and thinking it was two different ones, etc. , until I was satisfied that I had observed all seven nests adequately.

At one point a pair of eagles drifted through the colony and created quite a stir. This was good in a way because it enabled me to see what was on a couple of the nests that otherwise I couldn't tell what was on them.

My numbering system starts from the SW end and has #1 and 2 in adjacent trees, then #3 and 4 both in another nearby tree, with #3 almost directly above #4. Number 5 and 6 are further NE, also both in one tree, with #5 directly above #6. Number 7 is in another tree.

Number 3 and #5 are so high up and so large that I could only tell there was an adult lying on each, apparently incubating eggs or brooding small nestlings, as the adult would occasionally stand up and "tend" something down in the nest. The only way I could see #5 (except from the bottom when looking up from the grassy lawn) was to stand at the yellow gate along the dyke to the SW and I could just see #5 through a small gap in other trees with my scope.

The other 5 all have 1 or 2 nestlings in them (except #6 which has three), some small and some almost fully grown. Usually I could only see these when an adult would arrive at one of the nests to feed the young and they would all be up and begging. I had to wait a while to cover all the nests.

From what I've read it is apparently not unusual for a fairly high loss or abandonment rate. So the fact that all the nests are still active and have young on them is remarkable, especially given the level of human activity right below them, which should, in some colonies at least, have prompted abandonment of the nests long ago, according to some material I read. Each colony has its own level of tolerance, and this one's level must be very high.

Stan Olson
Abbotsford

[Gord]

Stan, excellent field notes for this colony. I hope, and this is probably a safe hope, that the nests I reported no young had young but were not seen during my short visit. It's unlikely that there would be that much predation in two days.

Keep up the good work documenting this colony. It is very, very valuable!

[Gord]

Finally the photographs.







A nest with two young.