Police investigating alleged heron archer

Marisa O’Neil

A two-foot arrow shot into the air off Bay Island Thursday afternoon

narrowly missed a blue heron and a Balboa resident.

Rick Jones, 50, was watching a great blue heron gather sticks

Thursday afternoon on the bank of Bay Island, right behind his home.

Then something else caught his eye.

“I was watching [the heron] when something whizzed by,” Jones

said. “[The bird] flew off and I walked out my gate and the arrow

came out of the sky and landed about four feet from me in the sand.”

“Whoever shot it was trying to do some damage,” he said.

Jones relayed the tale and brought the arrow to Balboa resident

and nature lover Gay Wassall-Kelly. Both residents said the event was

similar to an incident in 2001, when someone shot another heron with

an air rifle in the same area.

That time, a pellet shattered the female bird’s ulna, making her

unable to fly.

“She landed on my dock and was there about half a day,” Jones

said. “I called [the California Department of] Fish and Game and they

had to put her down, and all her babies died.”

The blue heron is protected by federal and state law as a nongame

species, said Mike McBride, an assistant chief with the California

Department of Fish and Game. Shooting at one -- even if you miss --

can carry stiff fines and punishment by state or federal authorities,

he said.

“You don’t get credit for being a bad shot,” he said.

In California, such an act against that particular species can

earn a person up to six months in jail and a fine of $5,000. With

other court costs, the fee could go up to nearly $11,000, McBride

said.

Wassall-Kelly reported Thursday’s incident to the department, and

Jones reported it to police.

Shooting an arrow from a bow within the city limits isn’t against

the law in Newport Beach, Sgt. Steve Shulman said. But firing it at a

person or an animal or shooting recklessly is, he said.

Police are investigating the incident, Shulman said.

The action upset Wassall-Kelly, who said she likes falling asleep

to the birds’ chattering when they nest near her home. The birds

deserve more respect since the harbor is as much their home as

anyone’s, she said.

“They were sure as heck here before us,” she said.