lbechtle@uceng.UC.EDU (laurie bechtler) (07/31/90)
While staying with my sister in the Bay Area recently, I found an immature
black-crowned night heron on the rocky bank of one of the lagoons on the
Redwood Shores peninsula (the one just south of Foster City). It looked just
like the immature in the Audubon western region guide. Anyway, the bird
was extremely passive, not reacting to approaches within 5 feet. The next
day it did move about 15 feet to find some shade during the day, and back
to the water at night. The following day it was dead.
My questions: Would the heron be completely fending for itself by
this age? Are they solitary birds or do they return to a common roosting
area? What might have happened to this bird?
Also, are those lagoons semi-natural or completely man-made? I understand
that all those peninsula areas were originally wetlands. Was it the ownership by salt companies that ruined the wetlands, or later ownership by developers?