[photo credit: Jukka Jantunen]
The juvenile LITTLE BLUE HERON discovered on Thursday in West Kelowna, November 11th was still present on Saturday, November 13th. It seems to move around quite a bit-- mostly seen at the mouth of Powers Creek on Gellatly Road, it has also been found as far north as Pritchard Park to the north (at the end of Pritchard Rd off Boucherie Rd), and off some of the beach accesses to the south off Whitworth Rd. It is fairly tame but please give it some space to it can feel comfortable feeding etc. When at the mouth of the creek it can be easy to overlook when roosting with the gulls as it is a "small white object!"
This is BC's third record of Little Blue Heron, and only the second one that has been photo-documented. First-record for the Okanagan Valley!
**Watch comments (below) for updates.
Still present but more-so near Pritchard Park and the mouth of Pritchard Creek (north of original location)--- as of 11:45am (Nov 14)-- Liz Bredberg et al.
ReplyDeleteAs of 2:30pm (Nov 14), the bird was back at the mouth of Powers Creek
ReplyDeleteStill there as of 7am (Nov 15-Monday)--Brian Stetch
ReplyDeleteNov 16th update from Matthias Deter--
ReplyDelete"Two Birders from Chilliwak and I were able to study him for about 45 min. on two locations.
At round 9:30 - 10:00AM he was resting on one of the docks to the right when you use the first public beach access going down Pritchard Dr.
The second time we would find him behind the house construction side at the south end of Pritchard Dr. Here he was wading the shoreline, activly hunting, and we were able to obtain quite a few pictures.
The Last time I saw him this morning was at 10:45 am at the lakeshore of that Cove Resort."
NOV 17-- Little Blue continues! Seen twice today by Chris Charlesworth at the beach access south of Powers Creek off Whitworth Rd. It's the one with the greenish pump structures etc.
ReplyDeleteNov 18-- Chris Charlesworth and Ryan Tomlinson relocated the heron again today... details should be posted soon on bcinrbird
ReplyDeleteNov 20-- The heron continues (seen yesterday and today), although it appears to be weakening from the intense cold and wintery weather that has hit the Okanagan. Most recent location has been the beach access off Whitworth Rd (park opposite the green piping etc)
ReplyDeleteSeveral subsequent visits including one on Nov 29th did not turn up the heron-- this might mean that it has either moved on or perished in the cold weather.
ReplyDeleteAs of Dec 4th, there have been no new sightings to report.
ReplyDelete