Reward offered in bird shooting

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT HARBOR -- A Balboa Island businessman has put up a $200 reward

for information leading to the arrest of a gunman who recently shot a

great blue heron.

David Beek, who operates the Balboa Island marine fuel dock, said

Wednesday that he had come forward to let people know that cruelty to the

migratory birds won’t be tolerated in Newport Beach.

“The razor blade in the park thing is bad enough,” Beek said,

referring to razor blades recently found on playground equipment in

Newport-Mesa parks.

But “now we have maniacs killing birds in the bay,” Beek said.

Balboa Peninsula resident Rick Jones found the female heron on his

East Edgewater dock Sunday. After a veterinarian examined the animal, he

realized that a bone in the heron’s wing had been shattered by an air

rifle pellet. Since the bone could not be healed, the heron was put to

sleep. Breeding plumage and a brooding patch, where the bird’s plumage

had thinned, indicated that she must have recently become a mother.

A volunteer with the Wetlands Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach

searched for orphaned heron babies on Bay Island on Wednesday afternoon,

but could not find any.

While Beek said that he didn’t expect his reward to lead to an arrest,

he hoped protest from community members would prevent further shootings.

Because herons are protected by state and federal law, the killing of

a bird can carry penalties of up to six months in prison and fines of up

to $15,000, said officials for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Anyone with information on the bird shooting should call the Newport

Beach police at (800) 550-NBPD.