Hi All,

Cliff's note about the Heron count reminded me that I meant to post this Saturday night. Sorry for the delay, but I don't think it's "time critical".

Saturday morning while scouting for an upcoming field trip I spotted a large number of seals and Herons out on the flats at the Skokomish Delta (the Big Bend of the Hood Canal). The seals were too numerous to count, somewhere in the hundreds, but the Herons were almost countable. I got somewhere between 85 and 90. They were moving around a little bit so an exact number was difficult. I've seen groupings of Herons before, but never that many!

Cheers, -Rolan



Cliff Drake <cliff at cliffdrake.net> wrote:
Hi folks,

There was a male CANVASBACK in the pond* at Golden Gardens Park this
morning, first I've ever seen.

The GREAT BLUE HERONS are back in good numbers down at the locks, my
highest count this year is 29. The interesting thing is they're actively
nest building in the "annex" in the Carl English Gardens but not in the
main Heronry across the canal. Last year there were 32 active nests in the
main Kiwanis Ravine Heronry and 4 in the annex in the gardens.


* The Golden Gardens pond/wetlands were destroyed by the railroad dumping
debris in the 50's and weren't restored until 1996 so they're only 8 years
old. The birds are returning in small numbers. RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS,
WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and MALLARDS nest there among others.

==============
Cliff Drake
Ballard, Seattle WA
cliff at cliffdrake.net



Rolan Nelson
Fircrest, WA
rnbuffle at yahoo.com

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