A Feather in The Chesapeake's Cap

Populations of great blue herons on the increase in Chesapeake Bay region

Little known fact, Great Blue Heron's were nearly hunted to extinction in the 1800's because their plumes were used in women's hats.

A new survey, the first of its type in a decade, found that herons in the Chesapeake Bay region — including the James River to downtown Richmond — have skyrocketed to 14,126 pairs in 407 communal nesting areas called colonies.

That’s up from just a dozen colonies in the late 1960s. The number of pairs was not reported back then.

Like other fish eaters, including bald eagles and ospreys, herons were devastated by the pesticide DDT after World War II. The poison would wash from land into streams and then move into fish.

The federal government banned DDT use in 1972. Many fish-eating birds started making comebacks, with the eagles and ospreys getting most of the publicity.

It's no secret to me that the heron's have been doing well.  We see more of them now than we did in the past; it's not uncommon to see 4 or 5 in a beach walk, and more flying.  You even see them squabble over fishing spots occasionally.   They don't breed locally so it's not a obvious as with the  eagles and ospreys.

Soaring eagles and ospreys might be showier than herons, which wade about spearing fish with their dagger-like bills. But there are a lot more herons in the bay, and they eat more fish than any another bird — thousands of tons a year.

I'm shocked that waterman haven't proposed to harvest the GBHs to send to China.  Let's not give them the idea.

“From a metabolic standpoint, they are the big gorilla in the bay,” Watts said.

In downtown Richmond, Jim Alexander still enjoys seeing a heron.

Me too.