Cuthbert Holmes Park

This is one of our favorite little parks that we like to take a walk through and seeing this canoe with it's little flash of color made me hopeful that spring is around the corner. - Fern

Swanee River

On a stroll through Cuthbert Holmes Park behind Tillicum Mall (a real gem of urban wild space) we came upon this lovely pair floating on the Colquitz River in the late afternoon sun. It brought to mind this lovely old tune which I then found on Youtube sung by one of my favorite actors, Hugh Laurie (aka Dr. House) who is also a talented musician. Listen here - Fern Long

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias)

Thanks to a suggestion from a visitor to this site, I went to Cuthbert Holmes Park yesterday where some Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias) are nesting in a group known as a heronry. Local users of the park helpfully guided me to the best location to view the birds. I saw about a dozen of these large nests while I was there but there are probably more since quite a few are located in living trees and are hard to see because they are hidden by the foliage. In years gone by this heronry has been under attack by Bald Eagles who swoop down on the heron nestlings. While I was there an eagle cruised slowly overhead. Though he was a long ways above, sailing peacefully along, all the herons took flight and began circling around their nesting area and making loud calls. A regular visitor to the park told me that she had to curtail her visits to the park last year because of the heartrending scenes arising from the eagle attacks.

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The visitor mentioned above, Mike Laplante, has also blogged some of his photos of these birds with some interesting background information, HERE.