Guano

I went over this afternoon next door to find out exactly when Dave needed his eight copies of the long-ago-finished-but-now-once-again-draft of the California Wildlife Action Plan.

Walter stopped me on the way in. What do you know about Sue Greenwald? Oh. She’s fey. (She’s also our next mayor.) Could I work with her? he asked. Possibly, I said. It depends. She’s been picking up fallen-out-of-the-nest baby herons at Shields Oak Grove in the Arboretum, he said. Oh. That’s illegal…

The heron rookery is sooner or later going to kill a bunch of heritage oak trees in the Arboretum. All kinds of people are concerned about this including our fey mayor-to-be. People seem to take sides.

You on your bike today? he said. Yes. Want to come with me and lay some guano traps? Sure. I have to go to the printer anyway. We biked in the heat of the day over to the Arboretum and laid out what essentially were diapers under oak trees…*

Sampling egret and heron poop for West Nile virus and avian flu is easy, non-invasive, and will perhaps give us some kind of additional input into the problem of ordinary citizens taking heron chicks home.

Even if they are future mayors.

*Just in case you weren’t sure: this is NOT in my job description.