Hey tweets, just got back from viewing the three (3!!!) juvenile Black-crowned Night-herons in Yesler Cove, as reported earlier. Thanks to Kit and Matt for the sightings and the postings, and many thanks to Michael Hobbs, who showed up in time to help me soothe my doubts about immature Green Herons - not that I doubted the original sightings, mind you. But Green Herons of various ages do come to Yesler Cove - in fact, I saw an adult Green Heron here about a week ago.
In any case, these 3 birds are absolutely glorious! They have giant red eyes, pale greenish legs (very delicately colored), and elegant white speckles sprinkled on their wings.
My husband John and I saw them around 8 p.m. All three were perched in the tall snag on the western shore of Yesler Cove. As the sun began to sink behind the ridges, one by one they flew down to the southwestern shore, probably to hunt for food. All three ended up in roughly the same place: a patch of reeds/weeds/water/dead branches behind the Wood Duck box. They were out of sight at that point.
I think there's a good chance they will still be aroundd tomorrow morning - fingers crossed. Yesler Cove is a good spot for herons to hunt up frogs and small fish.
This is not the first record for Black-crowned Night-herons at the Fill, though it certainly is a long-awaited and celestial sighting for me. Here are the records as I know them:
2 reported in the 1940s (no specific date; reported in Higman and Larrison's book, Union Bay)
1 December 5, 1974 (Fayette Krause)
1 December 10, 1975 (fide Gene Hunn)
1 November 20, 1976 through January 8, 1977 (fide Gene Hunn)
1 August 15 to Sept. 26, 1987 (Kevin Aanerud)
So it's taken a mere 33 years for this species to show up again, which is exactly how long I've been waiting. They were well worth the wait! - Connie, Seattle
csidles at constancypress.com <mailto:
csidles at constancypress.com>
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constancesidles at gmail.com>
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