One cautionary note on this is that eagles can frequently disrupt the
activities of the colony and cause *temporary* abandonment. Temporary is
the key word here often only a couple of hours.I have seen eagles cause
disturbance to the colony and occassionally predate on eggs,young or even
adults who might defend if given the chance while doing monitoring of
colonies. It is true that RTHA do not bother the colonies, in fact often
serve as a protector from eagles. I would however be *very* suprised if
the eagles had caused total abandonment. The scene was probably similar to
what happened on last Sunday when an eagle distrupted the colony for a
good part of the morning. In the long run it could impact the success of
the colony, but not likely cause total abandonment.

Scott Downes
sdownes at u.washington.edu
Seattle WA

"Birds don't read bird books. (That's why they are seen doing things they
are not supposed to do)." -Mary Wood


On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, L. & C. Schulz wrote:

> Hi Tweets:

> But now for the bad part. After the fieldtrip another birder named Jean
> and I went over to the Black River Slough which is between Renton and South
> Center off of Grady Way on Oaksdale. We expected to see the Great Blue
> Herons on their nests at the heron rookery. The tree was totally deserted!
> I was shocked, as the nests all had birds less than 3 weeks ago. Now there
> were just two GBH's standing in the shallows. There did seem to be the
> We met a fellow walking out of the Black River Slough marsh named Tom
> Malphrus. He is kind of like a site manager and has been active with
> fixing up Black River Slough into a wildlife area. He is very disappointed
> that the GBH's have gone. He says they suspect it's because of Eagles.
> Even though Jean and I didn't see an Eagle, Tom had seen an imm one
> earlier in the day. We did see three Redtail Hawks circling over the
> rookery, but I understand that Redtails don't bother GBH's.
> Tom was a great source of information. He is a wildlife specialist and
> works for the city of Renton. He's enthusiatic and has worked on the Black
> River Slough both as a City of Renton Engineer and as a volunteer. He
> would be glad to talk to or email interested people about the park. He
> told us that it is 90 acres. He also told us about future development that
> will be happening in neighboring lots to the East. That construction is
> due to start in the summer. There will be a buffer zone, and some low-rise
> buildings will be built.
> Tom is hoping that the Eagles will leave later in the month and that the
> GBH's will return to their nests.
> To get further info about the Black River Slough which is a Renton City
> Park, contact:
>
> Tom Malphrus
> Water Utility Engineer
> Renton City
> Utility Systems Div.-Planning Special Projects
> 425-430-7313(work)
> tmalphrus at ci.renton.wa.us
>
> Reported by Carol Schulz
> DesMoines
> linusq at worldnet.att.net
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