Great Blue Heron Rookeries of Richmond in Full Swing

Since spring is in the air, I decided to stick with last week’s theme on nesting in my local city of Richmond, VA. Unbeknownst to many people, including myself just a few years ago, the Richmond area is home to two large Great Blue Heron rookeries. Some biologists and wildlife experts have even gone so far as to call the nesting grounds “Richmond’s great hidden treasure.”

 Great Blue Herons at the Richmond Rookery.
By: Mary Elfner, From: http://birds.audubon.org

On an island in the James River, just west of the 14^th street bridge, about 40 pairs of Great Blue Herons congregate to build nests and raise their chicks. Even a few pairs of Great Egrets nest in this area as well. Richmond City’s Great Blue Heron rookery is particularly unique because it is located in an urban setting, and herons are known for being shy birds that like to stay far away from people. However, the Richmond rookery is in a fairly isolated location along the Pipeline Rapids. The Pipeline Trail following the bank of the James offers a great view of the nests, but the rocky island itself is not easy for people to reach, making it tolerable for the herons.

Pipeline Rapids in downtown Richmond, VA.
By: Phil Riggan, From: http://rotj.wordpress.com

Wildlife experts are pleased that the nesting grounds continue to grow each year. According to them, the presence of the herons shows that the James River is becoming a healthier habitat once again, providing enough fish to sustain the parents and their chicks.

This is a video of the Great Blue Herons’ full nesting cycle from last year. You can see the pools, streams, and rushing rapids for fishing as well as the trees that provide such a great habitat for the birds.

 

The other heron rookery is located in the Dutch Gap Conservation area in Chesterfield County. The nesting grounds can be found along the original James River channel and are accessible through Henricus Historical Park. Dutch Gap’s 840 acres of tree-lined lagoons and tidal basins are closer to what we tend to think of as prime habitat for the Great Blue Heron. While this rookery started small years ago, it has since grown to over 60 nests.

Friends of the James River and the Richmond Audubon Society have partnered to provide rookery tours on Saturdays this spring. Even though March is gone now, there are still plenty of opportunities to see the Great Blue Herons in April. If you live in the greater Richmond area, this would be a wonderful outing for families or for nature-lovers. The tour guides suggest bringing along water, binoculars, and a good telephoto lens for your camera. You can find a calendar of various tours at this link.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think in the comments. I hope all of you are having the same gorgeous spring weather that we’re having right now and that your allergies aren’t too bad.

Update on Richmond Eagles: We Have Chicks!

A little over a month ago, I wrote a blog entry on Bald Eagles and how their population rebounded thanks to federal protections after the DDT lows of the 1970s. Just to refresh your memories, I also noted that the Bald Eagle population in the Chesapeake Bay area is nearing saturation. As the number of eagles exceeds available space, territory battles and injuries will become more common. Eventually, the population will balance through natural competition.

In order to study the competition between nesting Bald Eagles and intruders, the Center for Conservation Biology set up eagle nest cams along the James River. You can read more about the CCB’s project at this link. The cams run 24/7 and can be viewed via a live feed on Ustream. Once you go to Ustream, you can also sign in via Facebook and chat with a scientist and others who are watching the live feed.

In Richmond, VA, we have named our eagles James (for the river) and Virginia (for the state). Ginny, as I like to call her, laid her first egg on February 8 and her second egg a few days later on February 11.

I’m going over this again just to lay a little background in case you don’t live nearby or you simply haven’t been following the story. The whole reason for this post is that I want to show you the eaglets hatching. I think it is really amazing to be able to watch baby Bald Eagles hatch right in their own nests.

The first eaglet hatched around 7:30 p.m. on March 16, and the second hatched around 7:30 a.m. on March 18. Here is a video of the first eaglet hatching:

The next video was uploaded on March 22 and shows scenes from the first seven days of the little eaglets’ lives. They’re very fuzzy by this time:

These videos are adorable and amazing, and I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did. But beyond that, the Richmond eagles have another meaning for me. I view the CCB’s project as a story of hope. These nests and these chicks would most likely not be here today if it weren’t for the 1940 ban on eagle hunting and the 1972 ban on DDT. When we come together and compromise politically, it is possible to achieve common goals. It is possible to grow food without using pesticides and other chemicals that weaken egg shells, kill bees, and poison the waterways. The recovery of the Bald Eagle population is an example that we can all learn from, and these chicks are a symbol of that in my mind.

Thanks for reading! What do you think of the little eaglets?

Bald Eagles Make a Comeback

Last weekend, I went to visit friends in Virginia’s Northern Neck on the Rappahannock River. When I was only a few miles from the water, I saw a huge Bald Eagle sitting in a field only 15 feet away from my car.

A sighting like this is still unusual, but it struck me just how unlikely it would have been when I was a kid. At 10, Bald Eagle sightings were an anomaly even in the country, so much so that everyone would run outside to look if someone suggested that the far-away black dot could be an eagle. Thinking of this, I realized that only in the last few years I had begun to see more and more of these birds. So why the turn-around?

Let’s start with a bit of history:

In the early 1900s, there were about 300,000-500,000 Bald Eagles in the continental United States. By the 1950s, the population had dropped to only 412 nesting pairs thanks to habitat loss, hunting, and DDT.

An effective pesticide, DDT was toxic to many animals and stayed in the environment for years without biodegrading. As this substance made its way up the food chain, predators such as Bald Eagles developed high concentrations of DDT in their bodies after eating several smaller animals that had ingested it. The pesticide either sterilized the birds or caused them to lay eggs with weak shells that broke easily and often did not hatch.

The U.S. government responded by banning eagle hunting in 1940 as well as the use of DDT in 1972. Because of these protections, the Bald Eagle population rebounded. By 1992, the population had increased to about 110,000-115,000 individuals. The government transferred Bald Eagles from the Endangered Species List to the List of Threatened Wildlife in 1995, then de-listed the species completely in 2007.

Now, the Bald Eagle population in the Chesapeake Bay area is nearing saturation. This means that almost all of the available habitat has been occupied. Territorial conflicts and combat wounds will increase as the number of eagles exceeds the available space. Eventually, the population will naturally balance itself through competition.

The Center for Conservation Biology, a research group within William and Mary and VCU, is studying the behavioral interactions between nesting Bald Eagles and intruders. The group set up 17 nest cams to watch Bald Eagle pairs along the James River. James and Virginia, the Richmond pair under surveillance, have two eggs and can be viewed via a live feed. Also, I have embedded a video of the Richmond eagles at the bottom of this entry. To find out more about the project, click here.

This was a great success story for wildlife. If the government can pass laws protecting Bald Eagles from localized extinction in the United States, then it can do the same for other species.

Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you’re doing to help the environment in the comments section.