Protected bird shot near Bay Island

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT HARBOR -- Balboa resident Rick Jones first saw the great blue

heron Sunday morning as she walked up and down his East Edgewater dock.

When the bird, standing about 3 feet tall, still lingered about an

hour later, he took a closer look.

“I could walk right up to her and she wouldn’t move,” Jones said

Wednesday, adding that he called the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center in

Huntington Beach to ask if anything was wrong with the animal.

The heron was eventually taken to All Creatures Care Cottage in Costa

Mesa, where a large, bloody swelling was discovered on her left wing.

An X-ray revealed that an air rifle pellet had shattered her ulna

bone. Because there was no way to heal the bone, hospital officials put

the heron to sleep because she could no longer fly.

“Whoever shot it gave it a death sentence,” said Debbie McGuire, the

hospital’s administrator. “And her babies, probably two or three of them

. . . are probably starving somewhere.”

The bird’s breeding plumage and a brooding patch, where her plumage

had thinned as a result of sitting on eggs or newborn birds, made it

clear the heron had recently become a mother, McGuire said.

The killing of a heron, a migratory bird protected by federal law, can

carry fines of up to $10,000, McGuire said. She added that the bird must

have been shot near Jones’ dock because it could not have flown far with

the wounded wing.

Jones’ dock sits almost directly across from Bay Island, where herons

nest. Harbor Island is another place where herons can be found in the

city.

Balboa activist Gay Wassall-Kelly, who helped to rescue the bird

Sunday, said she was outraged by the incident.

“I can’t fathom anyone doing this,” she said. “I don’t care if

[herons] are noisy. . . . This is just not right.”

Mike Teague, an animal patrol officer with the Newport Beach Police

Department, said a couple of bird shootings are reported every year. But

he doesn’t remember an incident where a great blue heron had been shot,

he added.

Anyone with information about the incident should call the Police

Department at (949) 550-NBPD.