Carton House

Yesterday we woke up to another Sunny day.  So I fed the kids and we set off for a walk along the Carton Avenue path that runs behind our neighborhood.  It's a long green avenue with a paved path for walking and has green grass, then brambles, then hedgerows on either side.  It runs from the end of Main Street in Maynooth for a kilometer and a half East towards Carton House.  Carton House was once the home of the Earls of Kildare and the Duke of Leinster, but is now a hotel.  The path crosses a road and then enters the grounds of Carton House passing through one of the golf courses there. The avenue is a really nice walk, and a shortcut through the brambles makes it very convenient to us.
Cranky kiddos aside, I had a nice time.  I got to get some photos of birds that I've seen before, and added some new ones too.  Before we even made it to the avenue, I saw this Blackbird singing away up in a tree.

Blackbird - Maynooth, Ireland

They really are a monochromatic vesion of the American Robin, they act and sing very similarly. We also got to get pretty close to a Magpie.  It was up against the blackberry bushes.  You can see the beautiful blue/green colors on the wings.  And as my daughter found out, they really like cheddar bunnies.

Magpie - Maynooth, Ireland

Speaking of Robins, I was hearing them sing everywhere, but seeing them was a different matter.  They are fairly tiny, maybe sparrow size, but they can really project their song.  I was finally able to see one towards the edge of a tree and got a decent photo of it.

Robin - Maynooth, Ireland

I see one or more of these guys on my walks.  They do typical perch and then fly out to grab a bug as most flycatchers, so they are pretty easy to spot if you are looking.

Spotted Flycatcher - Maynooth, Ireland

We made it across the one road and through the golf course and found a nice little spot for a rest and a snack, under a big oak next to this great looking stone bridge near a big pond.

Bridge at Carton House - Kildare, Ireland

There were lots of bird activity around. Lots of Swallows and Martins were flying over the water.  Near our picnic spot was a boathouse and I noticed a flash of yellow on one of the roofs.  What could have been a Kingbird in the US was instead a Grey Wagail, a lifer for me.

Grey Wagtail - Carton House, Ireland

The entire time that we were stopped eating out snack another Blackbird was above us in the oak singing away.

Blackbird - Carton House, Ireland

I noticed some small birds flying in and out of a snag, but the kids were getting too restless for me to get a good look, but I think that it was a pair of Tits tending to a nest (hey, I didn't name them). But I did see a small bird flying around the edges of a different tree.  Another lifer for me, this one a Chaffinch.

Chaffinch - Carton House, Ireland

Another Chaffinch landed in the grass nearby, this time you can see the coloring on the wings and a bit of the dark forehead that they have.  The one above may be a juvenile, but I have no idea what their nesting seasons are like.

Chaffinch - Carton House, Ireland

I may have also seen a Cuckoo or maybe a Mistle Thrush in the same area.  And a really yellow bird landed near me, but I never had the chance to get a good look at it as I was carrying my son instead of my binoculars at this point. But I'm going to take a walk there by myself this weekend and hopefully see what that is, and maybe a raptor too.

I plan on spending lots of time along Carton Avenue while we're here, and I'll be branching out to some other spots soon too.  Our household shipment got in from the US today, so my scope and tripod are finally here and in one piece. So perhaps I'll make a trip the shore soon.

cheers!

Let the Irish Birds Begin!

I finally got out and managed to get some decent photos of some of the local birds.  The Sun made a nice appearance with no clouds around until midday, and so far it hasn't rained all day.  I decided to take the kids to the big playground in Maynooth, which is along the royal canal and the local train station.  But the first photo of the day was from the backyard... I mean garden. I had been hearing a buzzing or clicking almost non-stop for the past few days and finally managed to see the culprit.

Wren, Maynooth Ireland

It was a tiny Wren sitting on top of a neighboring building.  It's easy to ID because there's only the 1 Wren in Ireland, and all of Europe. To think that I've seen 9 different species in the US alone, and I'll say all of the US species, but the Sinoloa Wren may be established by the time that I get back.

Over on the Canal was a Mute Swan.  I had seen a pair just a few days ago, but this one was all by itself today.

Mute Swan - Maynooth Ireland

There are lots of black birds here.  Namely the Blackbird, which is more of an all black American Robin and not like the Blackbirds seen in the US. It even sings like one. But that is one bird who has alluded me so far.  But the two most common ones are the Jackdaw and the Rook.

Jackdaw - Maynooth Ireland

The Jackdaw is very likable.  They seem to be everywhere and have a cute sound to them.  The above shot really shows off the two-tone coloring on their heads. but they are mostly black.
Rooks seem to fill the role of crows back in the States.  They sound like a Corvid, but have lighter colored beaks.

Rook - Maynooth Ireland

As far as other black birds go, I've seen a Hooded Crow, but not Carrion Crow or Raven yet. And for a nice segue, here's a Magpie, which seem to be everywhere around Maynooth.

Magpie - Maynooth, Ireland

Besides the Mute Swan on the canal, there were a few Mallards out and about, including this mom and a couple ducklings.

Mallards - Maynooth, Ireland

And moving through the reeds was a nice surprise.  What I thought at first was a Eurasian Coot, was instead Common Moorhen.

Common Moorhen - Maynooth, Ireland

I saw another one further down the canal with a chick, but I didn't get a chance to get a photo before they disappeared into the reeds.

There were quite a few small birds around the playground too.  The most numerous that I saw were Pied Wagtails. A really neat looking bird that have a real knack for running away from a camera.

Pied Wagtail - Maynooth, Ireland

And it took me a bit of work to pin down the ID on this other bird, but it ended up being an immature Pied Wagtail. 

Immature Pied Wagtail - Maynooth, Ireland

Another very common bird is the Wood Pigeon. They have been very active building nests along Carton Avenue, and everywhere else.  As a matter of fact, I haven't seen Rock Pigeons yet, but plenty of these better looking ones.

Wood Pigeon - Maynooth, Ireland

Finally, just before we got into our car and left to do some shopping, I saw a small bird fly into a tree near the car park.  I was busy with the kids, but I managed to get one photo off before leaving.

Bullfinch - Maynooth, Ireland

It was a Bullfinch!  One of the birds from the cover of the Birds of Europe, from Princeton Field Guides, the best field guide that I've ever seen.  It was a bird that I had really wanted to see and surprise, there it was when I wasn't even trying.

I'm up to 25 species ID'd so far.  Hopefully the weather stays nice and I can get out and maybe get some photos of the rest of the birds that are around. 

Thanks for making it this far,

Cheers! 

Farewell tour of the USA

I'm writing this from our new house in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland. We arrived early Wednesday morning on a red-eye from Boston.  My wife, both kids and I survived and are adjusting to our new home.  But before we arrived here, and after we left Oregon, we did a little farewell tour of the ol' U-S of A.  My wife was in a wedding in Southern California, so we jumped on the chance to spend a few days in sunny San Diego at a resort there.  We knew that the Sun is a rare commodity in Ireland and wanted to say bye to it in style. So we parked ourselves in a nice bungalow on an island in the bay and enjoyed the beach and most of the 5 pools.  We did pick a week where the temperature was over 100F every day, and most of San Diego was surrounded by fires, but we still had a nice relaxing time. I even managed to take my binoculars for a walk once or twice.
There were lots of Great Blue Herons around, maybe 10 different ones, they almost out-numbered the Gulls.

Great-Blue Heron - San Diego CA

And this little Black-Crowned Night-Heron was hanging out at the cafe where my son and I were eating lunch while the girls were getting mani-pedis.  It would lurk and then grab whatever food fell onto the ground, even french fries.

Black-Crowned Night-Heron - San Diego CA

Surprisingly it could still fly after eating all that crap.  Just nearby we got to see some neat Jellyfish swimming alongside a boat dock.

Moon Jellyfish - San Diego CA

There were lots of yellow birds flying around and they were really hard to see against the light-green leaves.  But I saw some Western Tanagers and a few Wilson's Warblers.

Wilson's Warbler - San Diego CA

Another yellow bird that I saw, and a lifer, was a surprise Hooded Oriole, what a great looking bird.

Hooded Oriole - San Diego CA

I was telling my family about it on our way to dinner later than night, and what do you know, there was another one.  There were also lots of Hummingbirds about.  Most were Anna's, but a few Costa's Hummingbirds were buzzing around too.

Costa's Hummingbird - San Diego CA

Sadly I found a dead Swainson's Thrush that had flown into a door right after I had entered to get coffee one of the mornings there. I moved if off of the path in the hope that it was just stunned, but it never moved again.  I had hoped to see one in Oregon, but never did. But as luck would have it, I would see a 5 of them flying in and out of a hedgerow at the resort.  I can only guess that this was a group of recent fledglings that were still with their parents.

Swainson's Thrush - San Diego CA

The other birding highlights of the trip was watching Little Terns dive bombing fish at the beach.  But they were far too fast for my camera to capture.  We were also there during a rash of wildfires throughout San Diego County.  There were 11 at one point. We were travelling further into California for a wedding and was actually afraid that we weren't going to be able to get to it.  But the fires were under control and the highway was open when we had to leave.  The fires did give us a nice sunset during dinner our last night at the resort.

Smokey Sunset - San Diego CA

We left Sunny southern California for equally Sunny Pittsburgh to spend a few final days with family before our big jump across The Pond.

I was able to squeeze in a few hours birding in between parties and visiting Primanti Brothers. My goal was to get lots of eastern warblers on my life list.  A goal that I did not even add 1 to. I did manage to see some new-to-me birds though.  But really, I got so see some of my favorite east coast birds.

My first trip was to Beechwood Farms Preserve in Allegheny County. But alas, it was too cold for bugs to be out, so it was too cold for Warblers to be out too. But I did get to see some nice Eastern Bluebirds out enjoying the morning Sun.

Eastern Bluebird - Beechwood Farms Preserve, PA

I also saw my favorite hawk, a Red-Shouldered Hawk. It went into some trees, and then I saw it land on a wooden "T" where it ate something.

Red-Shouldered Hawk - Beechwood Farms Preserve, PA

There were lots of woodpeckers about.  The first bird that I saw after getting out of my car was  Red-Bellied Woodpecker. And a Downy was in the same tree. Later I would see another Downy and then 2 Pileated Woodpeckers at different parts of the preserve.  Finally I tracked down a Northern Flicker by following it's very noisy calls.  There were also lots of Indigo Buntings about, but none that wanted their picture taken.  On my way back to my parents house I decided to stop by the Tarentum Bridge and try to see the resident Peregrine Falcons.  I looked around for a few minutes without seeing any, but on my way out I noticed one in the rear-view mirror.  I backed-up and parked and hopped out for another look.  Sure enough there was one in the same area where I'd seen them before.

Peregrine Falcon - Tarentum, PA

And then I noticed a second one fly up.  When seen side-by-side it was easy to see that the first one that I spotted was the female and the other the male.

Peregrine Pair, male on left, female on right - Tarentum, PA

I also ran into Steve Gosser there.  Steve is a fantastic photographer from the area and has managed to get some incredible photos.  He told me that there may be a nest there and that there would be an inspection later that week.  As it turns out, there were 2 chicks there when I was, but I didn't know where to look.  There was a bit of excitement during the inspection, which can be read about here at Outside My Window if you would like to read about it. 

I snuck in one more chance to try and see some Warblers at Harrison Hills Park.  I finally did get to see a few, but none that I had not seen before.  I did tried really hard to see some Worm Eating Warblers, but dipped on them.  

One new bird was shouting it's name at me, an Eastern Wood Pewee.

Eastern Wood Pewee - Harrison Hills Park, PA

And nearby were 2 warblers, Black-and-White Warblers.  I managed to get a shot of one while it stopped to eat.

Black-and-White Warbler - Tarentum, PA

And there were so many beautiful Scarlet Tanagers about.  This was the same park where I saw my first one the year before.  But I didn't a single good shot.  I saw at least 5, but there could have been twice that number.
Another warbler that I was surprised to see was a Common Yellowthroat, and I saw a pair of them too.

Common Yellowthroat - Harrison Hills Park, PA

Nearby I was surprised by one of my target birds in PA.  If I didn't see one before I left, I knew of a yard where the were readily seen.  But instead, this Rose-Breasted Grosbeak decided to same me an extra trip.

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak - Harrison Hills Park, PA

I was really hoping that this was a Worm Eating Warbler, but instead it's a fairly nice, if not exactly diagnostic, shot of a Red-Eyed Vireo, which was a lifer for me the day before at Beechwood Farms.

Red-Eyed Vireo - Harrison Hills Park, PA

I didn't have the warbler extravaganza that I had hoped for, but it was still enjoyable to get back to some familiar places for a proper goodbye.
So that's it for me bothering birds in North America. I had my first walk with binoculars in Ireland today and got to see some really great birds.  But because it was taking turns misting and raining, I didn't get any photos.  But it can't rain here every day, can it?

I'm already missing everyone back home (wherever that may be).  But the family and I are adjusting and my wife starts at work tomorrow.  We're still waiting for our household stuff to show up, along with my scope and waterproof shoes.  But I've already made a birding contact and will hopefully get out a bit this week and get some photos to share.  To be honest, I'm really missing my 7D, the SX50 isn't cutting it and I may not be able to wait to get back to the US to replace it.  We'll see though.

Thanks for making it this far,

Cheers from Ireland.  

See you on the other side!

I really wanted to update one last time before out big move to Ireland.  We are taking a small vacation in San Diego and attending a wedding before we head across the pond, as well as spending a few days in Pittsburgh to say by to our families.
As far as birding goes, I haven't had a chance to get out much.  But I did buy myself a new spotting scope for Ireland and got to play with it a bit yesterday.  I managed to see some new-to-me shorebirds, Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers, Least Sandpipers and some Western Sandpipers at the amazing Jackson Bottom Wetlands.  I really regret not going there sooner, my kids would have loved it.  Oh well, we may wind up back on Oregon in a few years, and if so, I'll be there often.

So, we've been super busy getting ready to leave and getting our fill of the American food that we'll be missing.

Thanks for reading this blog and I'll be sure to update it by the end of the month.  That is if Ireland has the internet.  (they do)

Cheers!

Wasco County Birding

Yesterday, Saturday April 26th, I was lucky enough to be invited to do some county birding by locals Stefan Schlick and Justin Rodecap.  Stefan lead the Sooty Grouse trip that I went on a few weeks ago and is an amazing birder and well of knowledge. Justin was a Wasco County regular who lived out in The Dalles.

I was also trying out a new camera.  Since all of my gear was stolen 2 weeks ago (here come the tears again) I was really suffering from photography withdrawals.  Heavy thinking led me to consider replacing my Canon 7D and lenses with a superzoom point and shoot, aka bridge camera.  I narrowed down my choices to the Canon SX50 HS and a Panasonic Lumix FZ70.  Both had zooms out to 1200mm (35mm equivalent). The Canon started at 24mm and the Panasonic started at 20mm. The local Target had them both side-by-side so I was able to play around with them for a bit. I ended up taking the Panasonic home because I liked how it felt in my hands, the buttons made a bit more sense to me, and it was $100 cheaper than the Canon.  But after using it for a weekend, I may try the Canon out.  Another plus for this camera system is the size, it would be nice to not have to lug a DSLR system around Europe, plus I'm really paranoid of being robbed again.  But I digress, let's get back to the birds.

Our target birds were Sagebrush Sparrows, White-Headed Woodpecker and Resident Sandhill Cranes, all found in Wasco County.  This would also be my introduction to "County Birding" aka, what birders do when their life-lists get really, really long. Apparently it's a popular thing here on the West Coast.  Getting 100 or more birds in each county in each state.  Some fabled birders have managed to get 300 in each county in Oregon.  I'm still working on my ABA list, but it's nice to know that I'll have a head start on my Oregon County lists with 72 species seen during the day.

Wasco County is East of Portland and on the other side of Mount Hood.

Mt Hood from Wasco County OR

Our first stop was some grassland mixed with sagebrush for Sagebrush Sparrows.  We managed to see and hear lots of Vesper Sparrows, but no Sagebrush Sparrows. But a pleasant surprise were 3 or 4 Sage Trashers who were out calling from various parts of the prairie.

Sage Thrasher - Wasco County Oregon

This was a county bird for my companions, and a state bird for me.
But let me show you what I do like about the Panasonic Camera.  The above photo is zoomed in and uncropped to 1200mm. Standing in the same spot, this is the same scene at 20mm.

Same shot as above at 20mm

The Sage Thrasher had flown when I took this, but it was sitting on that box structure on the right of the image.  Very impressive if you ask me.

We also saw a few Mountain Bluebirds flying around.

Mountain Bluebird - Wasco County Oregon

But we never did see or hear any Sagebrush Sparrows.  But we did see a badger along the road, it was so awesome.  We stopped the car to watch it, but it had turned tail and was running away from us through the fields.  What a great animal to see in the wild, even the locals were excited.

Our next target was up in the mountains, White-Headed Woodpeckers.  But there was a chance to maybe see some Long-Billed Curlews along the way, which would be lifers for me.  But alas, they weren't around. But we did get to see a picturesque farm.

Curlew Spot - Wasco County Oregon

We made our way up into the mountains of the Mount Hood National Forest and the White River Wilderness Area.  We were following up reports of White-Headed Woodpecker sightings from 6 years ago, but were hoping that they were still around. Despite seeing lots of good signs of woodpecker activity, we didn't see any.  But we did spot a Sapsucker way up in a tree.

Williamson's Sapsucker - Wasco County Oregon

It was a male Williamson's Sapsucker, and a lifer for me! This also closed out the sapsucker family for me, I have seen all 4 species found in the US. 

Once again I'll show you the zoom range of the FZ70.  The above photo is at 1200mm equivalent, and this one is zoomed all the way out at 20mm.  The orange box is roughly the area where the Sapsucker is.

Sapsucker zoomed out to 20mm

Again, neither photo is amazing, but these were both hand-shot with the same camera and lens and it was $300.

There were lots of birds in this remote area.  We watched a Red-Breasted Nuthatch working on it's nest.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch - Wasco County Oregon

This Black-Throated Grey Warbler was hopping around with some Yellow-Rumped Warblers and Chickadees.

Black-Throated Gray Warbler - Wasco County Oregon

This warbler shot shows what the camera can do in good light and not at max zoom.   We had plenty of Chickadees around, this Chestnut-Backed Chickadee was curious as to who it was walking around the woods.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee - Wasco County Oregon

Unfortunately, this is the typical quality of photos from the camera.  But there is still a learning curve that I need to overcome.

While we were getting ready to leave without seeing any White-Headed Woodpeckers we had a bit of a lunch.  And low and behold, a small flock of moochers heard or smelled the food and decided to come see what we had to eat.

Gray Jay - Wasco County Oregon

Another okay shot, but also with really good conditions.  But since we weren't sharing, the Jays quickly left the area, and we were moving on too.  But as we were getting into the car we heard some drumming!  We all looked at one another and took off through some really dense brush towards the sound.  We finally got to the area where we heard it from and saw a woodpecker... a Hairy Woodpecker though.  Still a nice bird to see, but no White-Headed, that's for sure.  So it was back through the brush and then down off of the mountain.
As we were driving along one of the forest roads we saw a single shorebird near a pond.  We stopped the car and stealthily made our way back to take a look.  It was quickly ID'd as a Solitary Sandpiper, lifer for me and county birds for Stefan and Justin. 

Solitary Sandpiper - Wasco County Oregon

Solitary Sandpiper - Wasco County Oregon

We would also see some more Kinglets, Yellow-Rump Warblers and we heard a calling Hammond's Flycatcher.  There were also some non-birds around the pond.

Garter Snake - Wasco County Oregon

Frog - Wasco County Oregon

Further on down the road we came to a canyon which the road was most of the way up the northern rim of.  Below us was some wetlands, fields and some trees.  The far rim showed some grass, more large trees and a bare, vertical cliff face broken here and there with more trees. We stopped because a nice sized bird flew across the road in front of us into some trees.  We stopped and got out to see an Acorn Woodpecker inspecting a nest cavity.

Acorn Woodpecker - Wasco County Oregon

We saw a second one nearby and later on watched a Lewis' Woodpecker fly in to inspect the same hole.  On the other side of the road we looked down on some more Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and even some Nashville Warblers flying through the top canopy, which was just below us.
Stefan said that he heard some Mountain Quail calling from across the canyon, a bird which I would really like to see before I leave.  As I was scanning the far side of the canyon I noticed a dark bird soaring along the canyon's far wall.  I initially thought Turkey Vulture, but then the bird turned and I glimpsed a white tail.  That's when I said "Bald Eagle!" and everyone turned to look.  It had a dark head and we thought that it was an Immature Bald.  But then Stefan got his scope on it and upon further inspection we decided that it was a Golden Eagle! The white on the tail was more of a band which had a dark edge border which I couldn't make out through binoculars. What a treat, I love those eagles much more than their more famous cousins. 

Everywhere around us were flowers in bloom. I was looking at some Balsam Root along the road when I noticed a well camouflaged spider lurking in wait.

Crab Spider on flower - Wasco County Oregon

We finally made our way out of the mountains and parted ways with Justin.  Stefan knew of a small breeding colony of Tricolored Blackbirds nearby.  I was really excited to finally see one, but wasn't getting my hopes up after not seeing White-Headed Woodpeckers earlier.  

We made our way East toward Pine Grove and found the farm. Sure enough there were 2 Tricolored Blackbirds on the ground near some horses, but they flew off before I could get any photos.  Stefan mentioned earlier that the epaulets on the Tricoloreds would be very clean white with no hints of yellow. And when I saw them, I saw that he spoke the truth, so clean.
Stefan wanted me to see the very small wetlands nearby where they nested.  The stand of cattails were very small and a bit off of the road in farmland.  There were Red-Winged Blackbirds and Brewer's Blackbirds around too. We observed some birds through the scope and Stefan taught me a useful field-mark.  Red-Winged Blackbirds tended to sit really high on reeds and cattails while Tricolored Blackbirds tended to sit lower down in the reeds.

We also saw some birds up ahead sitting on fences and criss crossing the road.  Here's one of the Tricoloreds sitting on a fence.

Tricolored Blackbird - Wasco County Oregon

And one more series of shots showing the zoom range on the FZ70.  Here is the road and the Blackbirds are far down sitting on the fence.

FZ70 at 20mm, orange square is the photo below

Zoomed in shot from above, FZ70 at 1200mm

I understand that National Geographic won't be sending me any requests for photos any time soon.  But balance these photos against the fact that the camera is $300 and no lenses need to be changed out, and that most of the birds can be identified, it's almost a good trade-off.  I still need to figure out the focusing.  I can't seem to be able to switch zoom points and manual zoom is really awkward when you are using the viewfinder.

After we were done seeing the Blackbirds, we stopped by a nearby yard that had plenty of feeders out.  We watched Chickadees, Warblers, Sparrows, including a late Golden-Crowned, some Brown-Headed Cowbirds and a few hummingbirds fighting over a feeder.  This male Rufous Hummingbird really stole the show though.

Rufous Hummingbird - Wasco County Oregon

As late as it was, we weren't done yet.  Stefan wanted to try and get Sandhill Cranes that breed in the county.  They were said to be at the Camas Prairie in Mt Hood National Forest in the Western part of the county.  We stopped by about 90 minutes before dark.  I was worried about rain, so I left the camera in the car.  We started out walking along a trail but were only able to get brief glimpses of the open spaces.  We hard some geese and again saw some Yellow-Rumped Warblers, dozens and dozens of American Robins and the usual Chickadees.  We were also hoping to see Black-Backed Woodpeckers, but dipped on those too.  The closest we came was seeing a sole Northern Flicker and hearing a Pileated Woodpecker off in the distance.  But there were signs of Black-Backed Woodpeckers everywhere, large areas of bark scraped off of trees.  Plus lots of fallen trees which they and American Three-Toed Woodpeckers like to be near.  We also spotted lots of large nesting holes and some looked new.  

We made our way through very marshy areas and then through thick areas of fallen logs trying to get a better view of the prairie to no avail.  We followed an Elk trail for a few hundred yards too, but we never did find a better viewpoint. But, just before we turned around to head back to the car, we heard Sandhill Cranes. Anyone who have heard their calls will immediately identify them, and it was nice to hear them again.  I really regret now staying in Oregon long enough to try and see some new chicks.  But my time here is running out.

We're here for just 2 more weekends, which will be busy. If I'm lucky I'm going to make it out to the coast to see some Puffins, but I fear that my window to find Mountain Quail and Goshawks is over.  Soon I'll be out looking at Chaffinches, Corn Crakes and European Starlings, I mean Starlings.

As far as cameras go, I really don't know what to do.  Part of me wants to try the Canon out alongside the Lumix.  Of course I want another DSLR and another white lens or 2.  But I'm still thinking that waiting is best.  

Thanks for making it far,

Cheers.