And the bush has friends to meet him, and their kindly voices greet him, In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, And at night the wonderous glory of the everlasting stars.

Banjo Paterson (1889)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Eastern Reef Egret

Well, a couple big fauna surveys have been postponed, mainly due to flooding from an excessively wet rainy season up in the north of Western Australia. On the bright side, this means I can spend Easter with my wife and head out bush for some more birding and maybe video (with the HV40). It looks like Cue might be the destination again, with the country still in good condition from recent rains and quite a few arid zone birds that we need to get. I'm still on the hunt for that elusive Grey Honeyeater!

Here's a video of a easier bird to see, an Eastern Reef Egret, chasing small fish along a muddy creek. Fairly common on coastlines of Western Australia, but this video was taken at Cairns in north Queensland. These birds come in two morphs; this video is of the dark morph, which almost looks like a White-faced Heron.









There is also the white morph, which basically just looks like a small white egret.



White morph Eastern Reef Egret

1 comment:

Wilma said...

I thought that bird was going to crawl right up into your lap! Was that a rotten fish it picked up and spat back out? Wonderful video of a beautiful creature.

cheers,
Wilma