Posted on 11/22/2007 5:21:24 PM PST by Coleus
The channel between Staten Island and New Jersey meanders past smokestacks, oil tanks and towering cargo cranes, an industrial landscape that overshadows the occasional stretch of marsh or woodlands. It was this gritty waterfront that provided the background for one of nature's stunning revivals, starting in the mid-1970s: the return of herons to New York Harbor.
It started when a longshoreman spotted some of the graceful birds wading near islands in the harbor. By the late 1980s, New York Harbor had become home to one of the largest heron rookeries in the Northeast, with several thousand birds nesting on the islands, by some estimates.
But don't bother taking a kayak out on the Arthur Kill to do some heron watching. For several years, the herons have stopped nesting on Prall's Island, Shooter's Island and the Isle of Meadows.
What happened? That's somewhat of a mystery, according to the experts.
"It's complicated," said Glenn Phillips, executive director of the New York City Audubon. "There's a combination of factors that may have caused the heron population to crash."
Here are some theories:
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
They do best when they can nest over a gator wallow. The gators keep the furry predators away.
There’s no mystery why the blue herons have largely left my neck of the woods. It’s because McMansion development came and in bulldozed down their nesting trees. I’m slackjawed that the ever nosy water authority did nothing but then again there was probably some behind the scene money passing.
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