Herons Forever News

Reports from the field are by Mike Hamilton, volunteer photographer for Herons Forever. Check out his photos that accompany his emails on  http://home1.gte.net/mikeham, which he updates every weekend.

May 30, 2008
I don't usually go too far out of my way to take goose pictures, but these goslings were pretty cute today and there wasn't too much else going on, otherwise.  And they came out of nowhere.  As I recall, we saw none last week.  In mid-afternoon, two goose families marched across the pond, coming out of a nesting area to the left of the beaver lodge.  They were still out eating when we left.

Peace reigned in the world of herons and eagles as of the time we left.  I have heard of eagles grabbing heron chicks recently but it seems to occur later, perhaps around 7 pm or so.  So far we haven't been staying that late.  Nevertheless, there are many active nests, judging from the sound of clucking chicks.  With the leaves out and the growth of branches, it is pretty much impossible to see into the nest area from what has been "the main viewing area."  The most visible nest is seen at a distance of about 400 feet after walking a hundred feet or so further down the path toward the street. All heron photos today are from that spot. It has just struck me that there is no adult in the nest with the two nestlings. It strikes me as odd that they have been left untended with the eagles nearby.

We took our usual tour through the Waterworks Garden where the Anna's hummer was in the usual place. The iris is also there. I believe they are invasive, but they are pretty (guess my favorite color), so what the heck. The hydrangea is part of planted landscaping in the garden.

May 21, 2008
At Black River today, I expected bird kids to be featured but the stars turned out to be marsh wrens, rather than herons and eagles. These pics are thanks to Bernie, as so often happens. I would have walked right past. She first heard them, then found the nest. After that, she could hear an adult working back to the nest and alerted Bob and me. Visually, we could see the nestlings poke their heads out because they too could hear her coming.

Bernie also scored by being the one to find the muskrat, who came ashore about fifty feet away from the beaver lodge. Speaking of which, Bernie saw one adult and what appeared to be three juvenile beavers.

All heron pictures are of the same nest, the one with best visibility. Last week there were three heron chicks in this nest. This week, only two, unless one is well hidden. Could be a loss to an eagle or just falling out. It happens.

We heard that around 7:00 last night an eagle went into the colony and came out with a heron chick, not as big as those you see in these pictures, in the opinion of the witnesses, Bob Ferguson. 

In spite of the apparent continuing of eagle attacks, there are a lot of chicks, judging by the sound. The areas farthest from the eagles have a high density of nests that are active. I would not be surprised if there were as many as fifty active nests right now. I could count nine with the scope fixed pointing in one direction. There is no doubt, the herons are not leaving and there will be fledglings. And I am hardly ever wrong, well, not very often, at least, not a lot.....I don't think. But I'm not wrong on this.

Just before we left, around 6 this evening, Clyde (the male eagle) went into the colony, near a group of nests close to the eagle tree. He was not ignored. There was periodic "growling" from the adult herons. He stayed around 15 minutes, did not attack any nests, and finally left.

Otherwise, the Waterworks Hummer was in the usual place and even came to within ten feet of us to enjoy some irises. In fact, he was between us and the marsh wrens. Our cameras were committed to the wrens so we had to let the hummer go.

We saw three male wood ducks and one female today. There were no goslings and no ducklings of any sort today. I have to wonder about the eagles.  Speaking of which, the eaglet is growing but is still small, certainly younger than the oldest heron chicks.

Anyway, that's the Black River story for today.

May 14, 2008
The eagles did not raid the colony while we were there.  However, there was a curious occurrence.  An adult eagle came from low altitude out of the back channel of the pond, the point closest to the eagle nest. He was carrying a victim of some sort. A fellow who was there got a picture that was suggestive of a heron chick. The picture was a little marginal because of the distance and the relative small focal length, so I consider it inconclusive. However, I admit there was a resemblance to a heron chick. If it was....where from. There had been no disturbance in the nests and no eagle had been seen near the colony the entire afternoon. It was possibly from a cache of stored food the eagles have.

If somehow it was a heron chick, there are plenty more where it came from. There is now quite a bit of noise from heron chicks. There is one nest that has especially good visibililty. Unfortunately, the place it is visible from is probably four hundred feet away. Nevertheless, the photos came out pretty good. It will be an excellent nest to track chick development......if left alone.

Excuse the mediocre orange-crowned warble pictures but they are the only ones I have at Black River.

Bad news. We saw no goslings today at Black River. Very strange, especially considering there were three pair of geese. Two of them came over very close to me, even though I had Ronan and was talking to him and them. It was almost like they thought I had the goslings.

On the positive side, two little mallard ducklings came by without any parents around. It may be that these are the same two as last week.  I hope. 

May 7, 2008
Last week we heard heron chicks. This week we saw them - briefly. I had a good view of one but was interrupted by a passing dog walker and failed to get it. In the two I did get you see little balls of a head, one in the center-bottom and the other in the center.

An eagle chick appeared for my camera today for the first time. It is very small. Are there others?  Hard to tell at this point.

To complement the heron and eagle chicks there are ducklings and goslings. This little mallard duckling may be orphaned. At his size it is unusual to not have a protective mother close by. None was seen. It's not impossible for him to survive but he will need some good luck. Actually there were two of them.

There have been reports of the eagles raiding recently. For around one hour on Monday evening. When it came time to leave today, Clyde (the banded eagle) was in the forest near the herons and looking them over. He was still there when we left. Did he attack? Who knows. In the meantime there are still a lot of active heron nests. It's impossible to tell how many with the leaves so far out. In one picture you see three close-by nests with herons sitting in them. These were the most visible for a photo but there many others that you can see a snippet of. So far, the herons are hanging in there.

May 1, 2008
It’s Black River Wednesday and with the leaves almost fully out, it is even more difficult to assess the number of nests in use. However, I have neither heard of nor seen any reason why it should be less than estimated last week. In fact, I would assert that the heron population at Black River has seen a recent increase. Today, we heard heron chicks clucking for the first time this year.  From the loudness, I would guess they are at least a week old but I don't know that much about that aspect of heron chicks. It seemed business as usual. There was a lot of flying, obvious gathering of sticks, and returns without sticks, presumably with food.

The eagles were the show today. Thank goodness they stayed to themselves again. In fact, it continues that I have heard of only one witness to an eagle raid this year, perhaps twice. I have to think there have been more but it remains that the same folks are there again this year, at about the same times, and so far the raiding is definitely less....as seen by us. This force includes several people we know that regularly walk their dogs at Black River at different times.

The eagles almost surely have one or more chicks, themselves. There was an instance when both eagles were in the nest. One, on the left, was presumably feeding a chick. The other may have been too, but I wasn't sure. The eagle show was Bonnie (the female eagle) bathing. She is about 300 feet away in the photos, far back in the corner of the pond. I say it is Bonnie because there are two photos in which a band would be visible if there was one. Remember that Clyde has the band on his right ankle.

Ducklings and goslings are now in growing evidence. In the Waterworks Garden, this mother mallard had only one duckling that we saw. Later, there was another mother who seemed to have more like seven. She skiddaddled them under cover, so no pictures. The goslings are from the nest in last week's photos that showed an adult on a nest on a pond island. Mom and Dad took them out for dinner at the end of the day for about 15 minutes, then herded them back to the nest.

We have discovered a good place to view some of the nests from, though the distance is greater.  It is around the corner from the colony, down the trail a hundred feet or so. If the eagles let them alone, we may get chick pictures in them as time progresses.

April 23, 2008
First of all, the herons of Black River are still there, at least a fair number. The trees are leafing out but it is still possible to see into some nests. There were also birds in the air now and then, some with sticks. All in all, business as usual for the herons.

…Now, the anomaly. A fellow photographer there pointed out to us an eagle in the forest, very near the colony. Last year this often meant trouble on the way. The eagle was there preening a half hour or so. Also, it was wet, either from rain or a dive or just a bath. At any rate, after awhile it left and circled over the Black River meadow, obviously hunting, then circled over the heron nests a couple of times, then left in the general direction of Lake Washington. At no time did the herons give any reaction to any of this.

I can't help but recall another volunteer’s account a couple of weeks ago of herons successfully defending their nests by physically attacking a predating eagle. I wonder if that and perhaps other such defenses have discouraged the eagles to some extent. 

Other notes:  Goslings are in the works. Their nest is on one of the island in the pond.  And one of our volunteers thinks she saw green-winged teal ducklings.

Status of rezone request submitted by the developer last year

The developer’s request to rezone two parcels on the hillside overlooking the colony was approved by the City of Renton in December 2007.

The parcels were rezoned to Residential--Medium Density, changed from a combination of Multi-Family and Heavy Industrial.

Herons Forever advocated for the lowest possible density in order to protect the colony.

The developer has not submitted a proposal to develop these parcels as of yet. If you see a notice posted along Sunset Way (MLK Way) above the colony, please let us know right away! Click the Contact Us link on this page or send an email to  szkrom@drizzle.com.

Suzanne Krom's comments

Herons Forever's expert's comments

Timeline for heron colony

We will keep you informed as we learn more. Stay tuned... 

Introduction to Herons Forever and the Black River heron colony

Herons Forever is a Puget Sound-based all-volunteer nonprofit organization. We are the only group dedicated solely to the protection of Renton’s Black River great blue heron colony, the largest in the tri-county region and one of the largest in Washington state. In 2006, the colony consisted of at least 121 active nests, and produced more than 300 fledglings. (fledgling: A young bird that has taken its first flight.)

Bird-lover and conservationist Suzanne Krom founded the organization in 1989 in order to protect the colony from the impacts of nearby development. She continues to lead the now-600 member organization as president. Thousands of people have helped make Herons Forever’s efforts successful by contributing their time and resources. (Click the About Us link in left margin.)

The colony is in Renton, just west of the intersection of SW 7th and Oaksdale SW, at a junction of the old Black River and Springbrook Creek. The P1 Pond was dredged in 1985, and the next spring six great blue herons built three nests overlooking the same pond they have continued to choose as their breeding location ever since. This year, 2007, marks their 22nd year at Black River. (Scroll for History of Black River.)

Our herons belong to a unique subspecies that does not exist anywhere else. The fannini heron does not migrate, which is the primary difference between these herons and all the others in the United States. Biologists are concerned about the long-term health of the fannini population as their numbers are declining at an estimated 6% per year. (Click The Great Blue Heron link in left margin to learn more.)

History of the Black River

The Black River Riparian Forest is named in memory of the river that used to flow through the area where the herons now nest.

The Black River ran out of the southern end of Lake Washington. It flowed south through Renton, and then veered west and merged with the Green River to form the Duwamish River.

In 1916, the lowering of Seattle's Lake Washington during the construction of the Lake Washington Ship Canal drained the Black River and caused it to dry up.

For more information and photos, click here.

Duwamish Tribe

The Duwamish tribe had a village located along the Black River for at least 1,400 years and perhaps for thousands of years. The Duwamish were still there in 1916 when the river dried up.

In the early 1990s, anthropologist Jim Chatters conducted an excavation near the Black River Riparian Forest. Over 100 boxes of Duwamish tribal artifacts are stored with the University of Washington's Burke Museum from that dig.

The Duwamish, including Chief Sealth (178?-1866), for whom Seattle is named, were among the signers of the Point Elliott treaty. The treaty guaranteed both fishing rights and reservations, neither of which the Duwamish have today.  For more information, click here.