In my Seattle youth one of my nature-loving friends used the term Shitepoke to refer to Great Blue Herons - he picked up the word from his Grandpa.

In recent years I adopted it myself, particularly in the context of being a boat refinisher. One of the places I worked alot was on the docks at Elliot Bay marina, just below the Magnolia bluffs. The place is loaded with Shitepokes, especially in summer when the water is clear and there's lots of small fish schooling. They may be the tamest Shitepokes in Seattle - allowing very close appoach as they fish off the floating docks. Really wonderful to see.

However, what you don't want to see is a Shitepoke anywhere near the boat you just put a fresh coat of varnish on. In Old(er) English 'poke' being synonymous with 'bag' and 'shite' being fairly obvious in meaning, what we have here is a 'Great Gray S--t Bag ' in more modern terms. Ever see one of those dinner plate sized plops these birds can produce ? Know what that caustic stuff does to uncured varnish? Not a pretty sight. Of course Crow, Gull or any other bird poop will have a similar bad effect, it just the sheer size of Shitepoke deposits that scares the varnisher. "Away from this boat shitepoke" I would yell , waving my arms, probably scaring people more than Shitepokes. But I lucked out over the years and only got bombed on decking and canvas.

While it doesnt list 'Shitepoke' as a colloquial name for GBHE, the older 'Birds of Washington State' (Jewett, et al) does have lots of such names for other birds. Just looking through it now I opened up the book to the Peregrine Falcon, one name for which is 'Great-footed Falcon' which I thought was a wonderful name. They really do have huge feet ! I really saw this one day down on the Everett waterfront a few years ago. I was pulling into the vast boatlaunch parking lot and noticed not a single gull except one dead one, its feathers scattered over a large area by the wind. I pulled up near to it and was just going to go out and look at it, when a Peregrine came cruising straight toward me from a nearby piling. I stayed still inside the truck and watched as the falcon landed on the tarmac about 15 ft from the gull and warily walked over to the carcass and continued eating.

What was especially amazing was the size of those feet ! Huge, and particularly showing up as it strangely walked across the cement. It was like watching a mountaineer with giant yellow climbing boots with crampons on, walking across a smooth floor. Ouite strange. The 'Great-footed Falcon' indeed.


Jeff Gibson
Everett Wa