Breeding activity has concluded. I haven't seen herons at the site for at least a week.
Here is my strictly non-scientific assessment of what happened this year, post-road right-of-way. Initially there seemed to be an increase in heron activity, with new nest construction. Some of the nests, however, were abandoned early on--I'm not sure whether before or after eggs were hatched.
Still, I heard and saw a lot of post hatching activity. Later in the season, though, there appeared to be abandonment of nests, perhaps due to eagle predation as described by Susan.
My theory is that the road provided improved access, for herons and for eagles. This lead to the increase in nest-building activity and the subsequent abandonment of nests, as eagles started feeding on young birds. It will be interesting to get the nest count once the leaves have fallen. But this will not tell us how many of those nests successfully fledged chicks. Toward the end of the season I was only hearing/seeing birds at two nests.
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Dear Oly Friends of Herons,
I'm very interested in the issue of land clearing and 'development' in Olympia. I cringed when I read the post announcing that the land adjacent to heron rookeries had been cleared to make way for townhouses. The sort of commercial development that's been happening in this town in the past years has been staggeringly disrespectful to the land, not to mention hideous to the eye. I would like to know what sort of political action is being taken to resist further development of the precious little undisturbed land around my town. How can I contact you or others working on this?
I need to call the city to learn exactly what the status of the uphill property is, and I'm still trying to work up the courage to call the developer. From an environmental standpoint, such "infill" projects are considered good, because they substitute for sprawl, especially infill at high density (like these attached townhomes, with accompanying wooded tracts). But I am still sad about the loss of the rookery, if it relocates. There are urban rookeries--like in Stanley Park in Vancouver. Where eagles live nearby--how do the herons withstand predation? I don't know. Anyway, you can tell I have mixed feelings. People could leave their email addresses on this web site if they wanted to organize. Maybe the developer would accept citizen input.
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