Hi All

Rob's memory triggered one of mine in the same general area about 6
years ago. On a cruise out to the San Juans, toward the end of May, that
I was bird guide for we had almost 250 GB Herons along the west side of
Padilla Bay with the tide fairly low and lots of mud showing. The number
is only approximate, because they were so tightly clustered that it was
very difficulet to get a completely accurate count. Impressive!

Brian H. Bell
Woodinville WA
bellasoc at isomedia.com

Rob McNair-Huff wrote:

>Rolan,
>
>Your sighting reminds me of something that Natalie and I saw a couple of
>years ago during May, I think it was, off the shores of Bay View State
>Park on Padilla Bay. On that occasion we watched more than 150 Great Blue
>Herons in the shallow waters just off the shore from the park. It was an
>amazing sight to see so many of these huge birds in one place!
>
>--
>Rob McNair-Huff ---------- Tacoma, WA
>Author of Birding Washington (Falcon Publishing, 2004)
>and Insider's Guide to the Olympic Peninsula (Globe Pequot, 2001)
>White Rabbit Publishing ---- http://www.whiterabbits.com
>Mac Net Journal ---------- http://www.macnetjournal.com
>The Equinox Project ------ http://www.whiterabbits.com/weblog.html
>
>
>
>>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
>>
>>
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