(bird calls)
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[MARLA MASTER] The herons love the Locks because there's easy feeding around.
So they can easily go down and fish.
You're also close to Discovery Park, which is also a very important
feeding ground for them.
That is a brand new nest and it's just a couple weeks old.
So it's cool to see that it once only had like three or four sticks in it.
I think herons are cool because they're
they look like dinosaurs. (laughter)
When they're so large,
you can really see their almost personalities.
[CAROL TOFLE] Sometimes, the heron will land
too close to another herons nest, and there's
maybe a little bit of a squabble
to make sure that that heron backs away.
(Great Blue Heron squawks)
Just telling it you're in the wrong place,
go away.
Today we're monitoring the colony.
Most of what I saw today is incubation.
We monitor behaviors that relate to the productivity of the colony.
So things like is there an adult standing on or near the nest?
Are there a pair exchanging sticks to build up the nest
or to take turns incubating?
By the beginning of May,
you'll at least hear the chicks calling.
You might not see them very well.
When they first hatch, they're really kind of adorable when they're this little.
Their feet are really big and they grow into their feet.
[MARLA MASTER] By June, they're quite big and they're screaming for food all the time.
So if you do come to the colony, it's
this crazy amount of noise, they're nonstop chattering.
In July, they'll be practicing flapping their wings.
By August-September, almost all the chicks will have fledged the nest.
And by September, you'll come here and there
won't be any herons at all.
It does seem to be a fair, fairly stable population.
The monitoring is important to be able to observe what's happening
over the span of time.
[MIKE MARSH] I find it remarkable
that the colony has increased
in spite of all of the human traffic that
occurs below.
(warning bell rings)
[MARLA MASTER] It's very,
I think, rare to find a whole colony of wildlife right in the city.
So I think that's what's really important,
because if people don't protect them, then they may not be here forever.
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