I visited the Darwin sewage works this afternoon, minus my telescope
and camera gear that were stolen from my car during the day, to look for
the weird Pied Herons. The other day I'd noticed a few Pied Herons in
rather drab plumage and assumed they were immature birds coming into
adult plumage. I found them again and am fairly sure they are the ones
Denise was referring to. They matched very closely her description
except that I would say they weren't bigger than the other Pied Herons.
A couple of them adopted a rather stiff-necked posture that made them
look taller but there was nothing to suggest that they were indeed bigger
birds.
A couple (there were at least six similarly plumaged birds spread around
the various ponds) had brown and grey on the back and wings but
generally the back and wings were grey; the bellies were fairly patchy
dark grey - black; the necks were dirty white with a few showing patches
of buff or brown (it's common at the moment to see the white parts of
water birds showing this colour - I presume it to be staining ?from
brownish water). Crowns were grey, variably patchy, and at least one
had dark plumes as in the adults. All had white on the bend of the wing,
with one or two showing more white, ie, more like a patch than a line, but
still seemed within the 'normal' amount of white for immature Pied Heron.
The legs and bills (colour, size) were typical of Pied Heron as was the eye
colour.
My conclusion was still as it was the other day, that the birds were
immature Pied Herons, if a little scraggy looking, though perhaps this is
pretty typical of the moult from immature to adult plumage.
The identity of the other heron(s) - I'm unsure if it was confirmed that
there was more than one bird - that Denise mentioned hasn't been
resolved and may never be. They may have been around before, but my
first observations were at the Darwin sewage works in 1985, with fairly
regular observations until 1987, then again at Palmerston sewage works
in June 1990. They were reported from Fogg Dam in April 1989. Despite
having been around for quite some time, and observed by many people,
relatively little effort was made to pin down their identity and I suspect
that they may have been (ab)normal Pied Herons. A few photographs
were taken (I have some tucked away somewhere) but none that I saw
was very good. I may try to find my photos, and if so will post them on
my website, but don't hold your breath because my photo collection is all
over the place.
Happy heroning
Niven
PS Little Curlews, Oriental Plovers and a few other waders have recently
arrived and the Flock Bronzewing was at the sewage works on Saturday.
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Casuarina 0811 NT
Australia
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