For the first time, wildlife officials in Maine are trapping and collaring great blue herons in an effort to determine why their numbers seem to be falling in certain areas of the state.
Danielle D’Auria, a wildlife biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, says the department is being assisted by visiting bird experts as well as a number of Maine students in grades 1 through 12.
For the last month, students have been catching fish and setting up bait bins to lure the birds.
“Once the students have gotten the bird used to feeding out of that bait bin, we’ve been going out and setting traps around the bin and then watching those traps once they’re set for a bird to come in and get trapped, and then the whole idea is to put a transmitter on,” D’Auria says.
But it’s trickier than it looks, she says, and so far the department has managed to catch just one of the big, wading birds.
Great blue heron is a species of special concern for the department — D’Auria says the number of nesting pairs on Maine’s coastal islands has fallen by about 66 percent since the 1980s and it’s not known why.
She says the department needs to track the birds to find out where they’re going, and if inland heron populations are also declining.
The project is being paid for in part by the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund along with federal funds.
