Tracking Maine's Great Blue Herons - Online!
This spring, MDIFW tagged five adult great blue herons with GPS transmitters as part of an ongoing effort to better understand the state’s great blue heron population. After a significant decline in the number of nesting pairs on Maine’s coastal islands from the 1980s to 2007, MDIFW listed the great blue heron as a Species of Special Concern and began a citizen science adopt-a-colony program called the Heron Observation Network.
HERON Volunteers Fill Crucial Information Gaps
[caption id="attachment_1318" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Great blue heron nest discovered and photographed by Paul Cyr.[/caption] This past spring while I was focused on completing an extensive aerial survey effort to estimate the statewide breeding population of great b
Biologists Take to the Air to Estimate Maine’s Heron Population
[caption id="attachment_1263" align="alignleft" width="300"] This is a typical "fly-by" view of a great blue heron colony. How many nests do you see?
Photos from 2014
As a big THANK YOU to all HERON volunteers who monitored colonies, and to the landowners who allowed access, I've put together a slide show, "Photos from 2014". Check it out by clicking on the picture below, and be sure to have your volume un-muted because there is accompanying music. ENJOY!
Nocturnal Predators Likely Cause Colony Failures
[caption id="attachment_1225" align="alignright" width="300"] Typical time lapse camera and sound recorder setup.[/caption] The great blue heron was listed by MDIFW as a Species of Special Concern in Maine in 2007 because of a perceived population decline.
First Field Visit a Rewarding One
[caption id="attachment_1089" align="alignleft" width="300"] Volunteer, Rick Lawrence and technician, Brittany Currier, making observations from the wetland edge.[/caption] This Thursday, I had the pleasure of going out in the field with volunteer, Rick Lawrence, and technician, Brittany Currier. This was my first heron
2013 Heron Observation Network Photos from the Field
To celebrate the Heron Observation Network's fifth year, I put together a collection of Photos from the Field, taken by myself, co-workers, and some very talented HERON volunteers. Many THANKS to all the HERON volunteers who monitored colonies, and to the landowners that allowed access. Here's to another exciting year ahead of us! Happy 2014! http://youtu.be/GW31bH30grM
Fall Colony Visit
[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="390"] Photo by Doug Albert.[/caption] The great blue heron nesting season went by as quick as a flash this year. Fall is when I collect all the HERON volunteers’ data and enter it into the database to get an idea of how the season went for herons (which I will blog about at a later date). It is also a great
National Audubon’s Island Jewel is Maine’s Most Diverse Heronry
[caption id="attachment_905" align="alignleft" width="225"] Snowy egrets perched in apple trees.[/caption] This past May, I had the unique opportunity to assist National A
How Herons Handle the Heat
We’ve had some hot sultry days this summer, and if you were smart you retreated to a shady spot or went for a swim at a nearby pond. But what about all those great blue heron nestlings that were sitting in their nests 20-100 feet up in a tree, often in full sun? Sure, their nest tree may be surrounded by water if it is a snag in a beaver flowage, but that water is completely inaccessible to a nestling who takes around 80 days to learn how to fly. How do they keep cool on those 90+ degree days? Like humans, birds rely on evaporative cooling to release heat; however, birds do not have swea
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