SEQUIM — Sequim photographers Suzanne Anaya and Ken Kennedy recently found themselves moving from behind the camera to front and center to help one of their feathered subjects.
Last week, the couple with help from a neighbor and a four-legged friend recovered a heron they had begun photographing in a rookery by John Wayne Marina. Kennedy called Anaya to let her know the six-week-old bird they nicknamed Harold Heron, Jr. fell 75 feet from his nest.
Since Harold and his sibling were eggs, the couple had photographed the birds, Anaya said, but Harold’s parents abandoned the nest and his sibling was found half-eaten, likely by a bald eagle.
After his fall, Harold hid in old growth and dense brush near a hillside for what the couple guesses was about a day. The location made it hard to catch the bird, Anaya said.
She consulted friends online, particularly other dog trainers like her who raise border collies as competitive open sheep and goose dogs. They suggested she use one of her dogs, so Anaya opted to bring her dog Champ to the scene where she found Kennedy and neighbor John Engstrom strategizing how to catch the bird.
Anaya and Kennedy unsuccessfully attempted to catch Harold with a blanket earlier.
Champ took less than five minutes to find and drive Harold back to Kennedy and Engstrom, Anaya said.
“Champ did an outrun straight down the hillside through the dense thicket,” she said. “He stopped and listened. Champ knew exactly where Harold was making the trek back up the hillside. He herded him up to the edge of the logging road.”
Once in an animal carrier, the couple and Engstrom brought Harold to the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center in Sequim.
Director Jaye Moore said Harold was too young to go back in the wild.
“He’ll have time here to grow and learn everything he’s supposed to do as a heron,” she said.
Initially, Harold wasn’t keeping food down so Moore had to tube feed him. But as of Monday, he was eating whole foods again, she said.
“[Rehabilitation] could take a couple of months. It just depends on him now,” Moore said. “It depends on how fast he grows and learns to catch his own fish. We can never set a specific time. I think he’s going to do fine if he continues at the rate he’s going.”
After the experience, Anaya said she feels relieved Harold is safe.
“I’m so glad my Facebook friends suggested using one of my dogs,” she said. “I don’t think we could have rescued Harold without Champ.”
For more information on the Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center, a 501(c)(3), visit, https://nwraptorcenter.com.
It operates entirely on donations that can be made at the website via Paypal or via mail to “Northwest Raptor & Wildlife Center, 1051 Oak Court, Sequim, WA 98382.”
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
