Hosting one of the largest Great Blue Heron colonies in Western North America, this island of forest sits between Padilla and Fidalgo Bays. Vera and Bud Kinney donated this property to Skagit Land Trust in 1994 to protect the nesting herons. With the cooperation of neighboring landowners, each year, Skagit Land Trust conducts a nest count in the heronry. 680 heron nests were counted in 2019 in this relatively small area, which provides easy access to feeding grounds for the herons. Unfortunately, the Trust does not have access to all neighboring property, and therefore some heron nests are uncounted. The overall trend, however, shows increasing number of heron nests in the colony on SLT property and the property to which we have access -- and there are likely to be hundreds more nests on the adjacent property to which we do not have access.
Additional Heronry Monitoring
Skagit Land Trust, in partnership with volunteer community scientists, has begun to monitor portions of the heronry during nesting season, using monitoring protocol developed by Ann Eissinger, a regional wildlife biologist. In 2014, a group of Beachwatcher volunteers also began Forage Area Monitoring. Recent sound recordings also provide an insight into activity at the heronry during nesting season - listen in.
Interested in helping with heron monitoring? Please email Stacy Dahl, stacyd@skagitlandtrust.org
The Heron Camera is available from approximately 9am - 5pm PST daily during nesting season (March - August).
Learn About Herons
For detailed information on the biology and natural history of this iconic species, click here to visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Access
Due to the sensitive nature of the heron nesting habitat, the March Point Conservation Area is closed to public access.