Heron Releases from Wolf Hollow

Here’s a story from Wolf Hollow’s monthly newsletter, Hollow Happenings…

Within the past few weeks we have successfully rehabilitated and released two very different herons.
The first to be released was a young Green Heron that was found, weak and thin, in a park in Burlington in late June.

Green Heron – Wolf Hollow photo

It was a youngster that was just growing in feathers and still had grey down sticking out all over its head and back. Green Herons are small (only ~ 18 ” tall when fully grown), so we started by offering it small fish pieces with forceps and in water in a dish. At first it wouldn’t take the pieces so, several times a day, we had to carefully open its mouth and pop pieces in. This continued for 4 days, then suddenly it got the hang of it and started to pick up fish pieces and other food from its dish and swallow them down. Soon all of its feathers grew in and it was moved into an outdoor enclosure where it spent most of the time hiding among the tall grasses. After ~ 4 weeks it was able to fly and was released in a nice marshy area near Burlington.

The second heron to be released was a young Great Blue Heron that had been with us since mid May.

Great Blue Heron nestling – Wolf Hollow photo

It was a nestling that was found on the ground under a heron rookery on Whidbey Island. It was about the size of a large grapefruit, with a round belly and a huge beak and feet. It was just beginning to sprout grey, fuzzy down its on head and body. We were amazed that it hadn’t been injured in the fall from its nest in the top of a tall tree. But the young heron had only one thing in mind – FOOD! Right from the start it noisily demanded food and grabbed and swallowed lots of small fish. We watched as it gradually grew feathers, learned to stand up on its long wobbly legs and tried to look big and tough. The final stage was a few weeks in our Eagle Flight Enclosure to practice its flying skills and learn to catch live fish in a pool. In early August, the young heron (now almost 4 feet tall!) was released at the edge of a lake and flew strongly out over the lake to land in the top of a tall tree.

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