Logan Labree, Dalton McCaughlin and Rachel Bates measure and record the diameter of a great blue heron nest tree while Skip Walsh (in background) searches for another nest.
On a brisk fall afternoon after most students have headed home from Sebasticook Valley Middle School, 10 students remain. They each don a hunter orange cap supplied by the school and head outside. Today’s meeting of the Maine Outdoors Club is a unique one. They have two guests: Brad Allen and I, both biologists with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIF&W).
Though it is hunting season, the students are not going to learn about hunting laws or ethics. Instead, they will assist with monitoring a great blue heron colony located literally in their back yard, right on school property.
The school district’s great blue heron colony was originally reported to MDIFW by local residents in 2009. The initial ground visit by biologists last April revealed only six nests, but the breeding season had just begun and the colony was likely not yet fully occupied. An aerial survey of the site in late June revealed an estimated 30 nests, most containing nestlings.
Danielle DAuria
maineheron.wordpress.com 