relocation

Eric Erler, the director Capitol Land Trust, gives a little window into heronry use and abandonment. The Land Trust protected a heronry on Eld Inlet, which contained 105 nests. It was one of the 6 largest heronries in the state and the largest in the south Puget Sound, and was imperilled due to development.

After the Land Trust went to much trouble to acquire the property, bald eagles moved in and commenced feeding on heron chicks. This resulted in the abandonment of the heronry, and no one knows where a colony that size relocated to.

So heronry abandonment and relocation is a natural process, though Eric worries that shrinking habitat might limit the options for relocation. The interesting thing about the west side herons is that they're nesting in an urban, or suburban, environment; there’s no data about how close humans, and the noise of construction, could impinge without dislodging them. And would this be more or less disruptive than eagle predation?