Dave,


I was near Reifel last Monday and saw a very small GB Heron. At first I thought it was a perspective issue-it was about 100 feet away in a short grass field. But it was unusually small. Thanks for bringing up this topic- I will watch more closely. I did not know there were sub-species of GBH . For those in that area, it was about a half mile before and on the left of the Northern Hawk Owl and photographer site.


By the way- some speculate that it was the owl that laid the orange cones to protect territory, not the home owner as we had assumed.


Dan
----- Original Message -----
From: " dave templeton " <crazydave65 at gmail .com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u. washington . edu >
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 5:45:22 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] question re: great blue herons

Hi:

i have a question about herons. as i understand from a brief scan of the literature, there are several subspecies of great blue heron, one of which may be endemic to these parts, i.e., the northwest great blue heron Ardea herodias fannini , described as 'smaller and darker' than the nominate bird, A. h. herodias . the latest paper i found in my brief foray on the internet was by Dickerman in 2004 (cite available if anybody really cares). i think he says the birds here are intergrades between fannini and another subspecies, wardi . true fanninis only nest in canada accdg to dickerman . who goes where when nesting season is over isn't clear to me.

i looked at the literature because it has seemed to me of late that around here there are big ol' blue birds and other ones that don't look quite like them. i got images of one by conway (at i-5) over the weekend which can be seen at

http :// www . pbase .com/ dtempleton /image/132535429 and http :// www . pbase .com/ dtempleton /image/132535406

this bird doesn't seem as big, as blue or have as much head markings as the birds in places like say juanita bay.

any heron watchers out there who could shed some light on this would be appreciated.

tks ,

t

--
dave templeton
fall city, wa

crazydave65atgmaildaughtcom

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today; it's already tomorrow in Australia." Charles Schultz

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