Heron Tagged in Harpswell Surprises Biologists
For nine students at Harpswell Coastal Academy, Wednesdays in May meant donning knee-high boots, venturing to a nearby wetland, and hoping for signs a hungry great blue heron had been there. As part of a spring class elective, these students were dedicated to helping MDIFW ultimately tag a great blue heron with a GPS transmitter as part of an ongoing project to better understand heron habits in Maine.
Great Blue Heron is Newest Teacher at Easton Schools
On an otherwise quiet Sunday morning before dawn, our headlamps lit the way through cattails and boot-sucking mud as we carried a bucket of baitfish and tubs of traps to a bin set in the shallows of Christina Reservoir in Aroostook County.
Two Years Later, Two More Herons Tagged for Tracking
Two years after five of Maine’s great blue herons were outfitted with high-tech GPS transmitters, IFW once again worked closely with teachers and students from Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, Center Drive School in Orrington, and Haworth Academic Center in Bangor to re-deploy two of the tags on new herons.
Floridians Fetch Feathered Friend, "Snark"
Not all great blue herons migrate, but most of Maine’s breeders choose to spend the winter months in warmer climes at the southern end of the U.S. (Florida) or in another country altogether (Cuba, Bahamas, Haiti). In 2016, we fitted solar-powered GPS transmitters to 5 great blue herons that automatically record GPS locations and transmit data to a website making it extremely convenient for biologists to track the movements of such individuals.
Sedgey's Travels End, But Learning From Nature Continues
For those of you who have followed Sedgey’s travels over the last year and a half, he died on September 25th in North Carolina. Our research partner, John Brzorad from 1000 Herons, was able to locate and collect his remains to be examined by me and a few other biologists and veterinarians to determine the cause of death. The average lifespan of a great blue heron is 15 years.
Meet Our Most Highly Pursued High-Tech Wader: Snark
Have you heard about “Snark,” the first great blue heron in Maine to be outfitted with a GPS transmitter last spring, and the only one to be recaptured a year later? The great blue heron is a Species of Special Concern in Maine due to a decline along the coast.
Meet One of Our High-Tech Waders: Sedgey
Have you heard about “Sedgey,” one of five GPS-tagged great blue herons that IFW and students across Maine are tracking? Sedgey is a male tagged last spring on Sedgeunkedunk Stream in Orrington. He was named by the middle school students at Center Drive School, who helped biologists attract him to a trapping location.
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