AR-News: Vancouver adores its stinking herons Nat Post

Wed May 12 13:37:20 EDT 2004

[Now, if only we could get Brighton to feel that way about cormorants...]

      Vancouver adores its stinking herons
      'Prehistoric' birds return to Stanley Park, draw a crowd

            Brian Hutchinson 
            National Post 

      May 12, 2004

                  Stanley Park may be home to the largest urban heron colony
in the world, says Michael Mackintosh, wildlife co-ordinator for Vancouver. 
                  CREDIT: Jeff Vinnick, National Post 

      They are among the clumsiest-looking creatures around. Great blue
herons have wide bodies, goofy stick legs and bendy, vacuum-hose necks. Big
and bulky, they are the Antonov freighters of the avian world.

      Susanna Anderson can't keep herself from staring. "There are so many
of them," she said yesterday, her eyes widening at the sight of several
dozen great blue herons fussing about their nests. One of the giant birds
croaked loudly, flapped its giant wings, and bailed from its perch, 15
metres overhead. Somehow, it lumbered into flight.

      In British Columbia, great blue herons are considered a "vulnerable"
species, thanks to an ever-diminishing natural habitat.

      But suddenly, quite unexpectedly, the birds are staging a rally, most
noticeably in a place few ever expected to find them: over a busy, paved
area of Vancouver's Stanley Park, a place crowded with motorists and
tourists, cyclists, joggers and tennis players. "They look almost
prehistoric," marveled Ms. Anderson, pausing yesterday beneath a tight stand
of trees.

      Earlier this year, to the astonishment of nearly everyone, about 80
adult herons landed here and began building nests, a stone's throw from the
main Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation office, and sandwiched between
two asphalt parking lots.

      The birds are impossible to miss. Great blues are the largest in the
heron family; they can grow to more than a metre in height. Their wingspans
reach an impressive two metres. They squawk a lot, and they are prodigious
defecators.

      Like a lot of people, Ms. Anderson is used to seeing herons picking
their way about the shoreline, always on their own and looking lonely. She
did not realize they were such social creatures until she stumbled upon the
Stanley Park colony a couple of months ago.

      "I've been coming to look at them at least once a week," says Ms.
Anderson, who lives nearby. "They are amazing to look at. I'm telling
everyone I run into about them."

      The heron's blue eggs are now hatching. The colony's green canopy
echoes with the strange sound of several dozen hungry heron chicks. It's
quite a turnaround from six years ago, when the birds seemed to have
disappeared for good.

      Great blue herons were first identified in Stanley Park some 80 years
ago. After years of carefree life on the edge of the park peninsula, the
birds relocated to an area near the park zoo.

      Michael Mackintosh, wildlife co-ordinator with the City of Vancouver,
remembers those days.

      "The herons became quite habituated to people," he says. "They nested
above the concession area. You'd be sipping on some coffee and there would
be all sorts of things going on overhead. Bald eagles would attack their
nests. A heron chick would fall out of the nest and the result was, well, it
was not pretty. But the herons liked the zoo area, because of the access to
food."

      After the zoo was closed down, the herons gradually deserted their
spot. "We were worried about their departure," Mr. Mackintosh says. "By
1998, they had dwindled down to nothing."

      In the rest of the province, too, the number of herons was dropping.
Some surveys have indicated that the province's great blue heron population
plunged at the rate of 9.4% a year between 1969 and 2000.

      Two years ago, a few of the birds turned up at the new site. Last
year, birdwatchers counted about 20 new nests next to the Parks board
office. This year, there are more than 40.

      "It has been an enormous year," Mr. Mackintosh says. "This could be
the largest urban heron colony in the world."

      He can only guess why they have returned to the park, and why they
have chosen to build their colony in one of its busiest sections.

      "It could be that they feel safer from eagles, being so close to
humans," he says. "These guys are likely the descendants of the first
Stanley Park colony, so they are relatively relaxed around people."

      Word of their return has certainly spread. The birds have become a
minor sensation and a bit of a tourist attraction. When they first arrived
in late winter, the trees where they nested were bare. The herons were
impossible to miss as they set to work building the foundations on their
homes, flying in and out of the trees like small pterodactyls.

      Now leaves obscure the view from ground level. Even so, the birds are
easily detected by their noise and by their pungent odour.

      "The colonies do tend to get a little, uh, ripe," says Rob Boelens,
urban wildlife co-ordinator for the Stanley Park Ecology Society, a
non-profit organization that runs educational programs. "The adult herons
are eating a lot of fish and crab right now, and there is a lot of
regurgitation and pooping going on with the chicks. You don't want to be
standing underneath one of their nests, believe me."

      Heron chicks also make an incredible din, something like the sound of
monkeys chattering. Parks officials say they have received a number of
complaints from people living in apartments next to the heron colony; what
with the noise and the smell, the birds are disturbing their peace.

      The gripers had better get used to it, because herons can live for
more than 20 years. They usually return to their nesting grounds, year after
year, generation after generation.

      "They've left the park before, but we sure hope they stick around this
time," Mr. Mackintosh says. "They put a smile on my face whenever I see
them. They make me think that some peaceful coexistence between man and
animal is actually possible. It's something to enjoy, while we still can."

      C National Post 2004

________________________

Barry Kent MacKay
Canadian Representative 
Animal Protection Institute 
www.api4animals.org  

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