Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Samish Island Great Blue Heron Rookery

We had a sunny dry day last Saturday to take a walk about at the Samish Island heron rookery. The rookery is where great blue heron nest in trees on the island. The rookery is within a fairly mature second growth mixed species forest. The Skagit Land Trust was conducting a yearly nest count with volunteers.
 
Proud property owner of conservation easement

great blue heron nests

Tagged tree with nests 

Egg fragment on forest floor

Fire scarred mature Douglas fir with heron nests

Besides the heron nests I spotted a few other forest features

Douglas fir stump with bark having grown over the stump post cutting

Pacific yew

Glacial erratic
The forest is underlain by glacial drift

3 comments:

susan said...

I was so delighted to see that photo of the D. fir stump with bark healing over the cut. Years ago I saw a fir stump just like that (but larger in diameter) in the woods near Lake Wenatchee. I just stared at that thing, completely puzzled as to how that could happen. I took photos of it (black and white...remember that?) to show others that I did make this up. It was quite strange to see. Even people in the FS I mentioned this to had never seen a stump like that. So I showed them the photos, and they were still confounded.

susan said...

Oooops! "...that I did NOT make this up..." (Sheesh.)

Dan McShane said...

I have seen multiple stumps with this growth pattern. However, whenever I see it I am impressed.