{"id":61428,"date":"2021-09-20T09:30:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T13:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=61428"},"modified":"2021-09-28T00:34:01","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T04:34:01","slug":"heron-day-on-cortes-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/heron-day-on-cortes-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Heron Day on Cortes Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cortes Island\u2019s second annual Heron Day was held Sunday, Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cHeron Day is where we get a whole bunch of volunteers to go out in different spots around Cortes Island, at the same time, to count heron,\u201d explained Max Thaysen, President of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI). \u201cIf we have multiple eyes counting at the same time, then we know we are not double counting heron that are cruising around the island.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourteen volunteers counted for about an hour between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.<\/p>\n

They saw 15 birds, 6 more than last year, which is not as significant as the numbers suggest. There were fewer volunteers checking fewer locations last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw more heron in the proportion to more people looking, so in effect we saw the same number of heron. We saw approximately one heron in every one observation location, and that was the same last year and this year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thaysen mentioned some of the 14 locations in this year\u2019s count: Carrington Bay, Whaletown Bay, Smelt Bay, Cortes Bay (inside and outside), and Mansons Lagoon (inside and outside).<\/p>\n

\"Heron.<\/a>

Heron poised to take flight. Photo courtesy of the FOCI.<\/p><\/div>\n

FOCI looked at 9 locations last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Pacific Great Blue Heron<\/span><\/a> is a species-at-risk 'of special concern' (which means it is vulnerable and on its way to being threatened or endangered),\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Thaysen did not know if the Cortes Island population of herons is threatened, or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be that they are common on the shores of Cortes, but not in a lot of places where they used to be common,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Thaysen noted that there are a lot more houses lining the shore as he paddles his kayak southward.<\/p>\n

He added that herons may have simply been classified as a species of concern because the general population was once so much larger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not know which story is true,\" he added.<\/p>\n

So what did this year\u2019s count accomplish?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned that there are more herons, which is good, and we also learned that there are still herons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Is Cortes a haven for heron? Or does their 'endangered' status point to a once much more abundant population? Photo courtesy of the FOCI.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cortes Island\u2019s second annual Heron Day was held Sunday, Sept. 5. \u201cHeron Day is where we get a whole bunch of volunteers to go out in different spots around Cortes Island, at the same time, to count heron,\u201d explained Max Thaysen, President of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI). \u201cIf we have multiple eyes counting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":61431,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[222],"tags":[314,9534,9535],"radio":[252],"origine":[280,266,231],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61428"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=61428"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=61428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}