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58 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, September 2, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Prime Times Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 19, 2004 One of four fledged green herons sits in a cedar tree on Queen Anne Avenue in Medford. His parents built a nest in a nearby silver maple that was one of dozens saved from destruction by a neighborhood effort. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven Residents greet nesting neighbors Uncommon green herons bring out the curious on Queen Anne Avenue By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune V icki Arthur was startled driving down Biddle Road one day to see a green heron flying east. A cousin of the familiar great blue heron, the uncommon bird with the greenish black crown should have been foraging in nearby Bear Creek, not tooling along toward residential east Medford. "How sad," thought Arthur, a Bureau of Land Management wildlife biologist. But it was only the start of an urban wildlife tale. Some time later, Skyler Gilliland, 6, and her brother Jacob, 4, saw some unusual, sharp-billed birds around a nest in the big tree in front of their house on Queen Anne Avenue. Advertisement "I saw them poking out their heads," Skyler says. When Arthur, who happens to be a neighbor of the Gillilands, got home that day, Skyler and Jacob’s mother, Corie, told Arthur about the birds the kids had seen. The biologist got a pair of binocular and a spotting scope. Bingo. "She got a bird book and showed us what they were," Corie Gilliland says. The birds in the old silver maple were four fledgling green herons. They had begun to stretch their wings in local flights but had remained around the parents’ nest. The adult that Arthur saw earlier was almost certainly one of the parents. An adult was also spotted in Medford’s Hawthorne Park recently. The first-year birds are as large as the adults, about 20 inches bill to tail tip, but brown, streaky-breasted and capped with what Arthur calls "little fuzz mohawks." The news spread, and on Sunday, neighbors were out with binoculars, a spotting scope, a movie camera. This day a Cooper’s hawk, a species that preys on small birds, perches in a nearby tree. "I hope he’s not thinking of duck dinner," Arthur says. "Or heron dinner." Bunny Owen, a neighbor, paused with her golden retriever, Rusty, attracted by the crowd the herons are drawing. "That’s outrageous," she says. "No, it’s incredible. Unusual. Fun. Exciting." The fish tails and other parts found by Skyler and Jacob and the droppings under the tree testify to the adult birds’ fishing prowess — and their concern as good parents. But this is a story that could have gone another way. Five years ago, a rumor spread that the city was going to cut down the 100 or so old trees lining the shady street, and residents got together to protect them. City officials denied the trees were targeted for removal. But many of the trees had dead limbs and other problems, and children walk through the neighborhood on their way to nearby Roosevelt Elementary School. Neighbors anted $500 for a study of the trees. Eventually they put up $2,000, city officials agreed to provide $1,000 in services, and the state chipped in a matching grant of $3,000 for pruning and other work, and the trees were saved. Last spring a pair of screech owls nested in a tree cavity and raised babies. Now the implausible herons. The green heron has a chestnut face, white throat and iridescent green back. In contrast to the great blue, its neck and legs are short. The male builds a stick platform not much bigger than a jay’s nest in a tree — normally a tree very near water. The pair incubate three to five eggs for three weeks and feed the young for at least another month. The birds stalk fish, frogs and crustaceans, stabbing their prey with their bills. They are famous for the technique of dropping leaves or even their own feathers on the water’s surface to lure small fish. Soon, green herons from the Rogue River and its tributaries, along with birds from Coos Bay on the coast and Fern Ridge Reservoir near Eugene and other points in Western Oregon, will begin their long, annual migration. They will ultimately make their way to South America, only to return in the spring to nest and start the cycle over. "It’s a successful fledging of four birds into the wild," Arthur says. "Now they’ll be on their own." Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? 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