15 volunteers, Land stewards and staff from the Skagit Land Trust gathered early on a clear morning to go up and into the March Point Heronry for the annual counting of nests.
Some introductions and orientation and then up we go!!! (And UP and UP!)
Once there we see many nests and divide into three goups to go to work. Every group has a recording sheet, yellow tree-marking flagging and extra tree marking tags.
Here is a group getting ready. They will look for trees with tags and pink flagging. They will count the nests, record condition of the tree, and replace pink with yellow flagging. They will also look for trees with no tag but with nests and add that to the record. They will hammer on a new tag and flag it! There are always a few new-nest trees!
It takes a lot of "looking - up"
Some trees are above - and on - a steep hill down to the road.
During nesting there are hundreds and hundreds of birds, large and small, in the heronry and life can be hard.
Eagles especially are on the watch for a meal.
But all in all, the success is good, the heronry appears stable, and final counting results will be available soon.
A nest blown down to the ground
Getting in to the heronry is a fascinating experience though counting and recording is a lot of work - nearly 4 hours this day.
