Well, maybe not all that hard but just enough ambiguity to cause
a couple of our ace observers to mis-read one or other. The
practised eye of Steve Holliday got’em both.
Two familiar sights at the local sewage ponds: Old
Harem-pants the pale male Little Eagle and a displaying male Blue-billed
Duck. Quite a bit of displaying going on by the latter, the below example
being what HANZAB labels ‘Bill-dip Head-flick’.
As it does not seem quite the right time of year for breeding, this might be
practice-display, as one sees with the local bowerbirds. Perhaps this is
stimulated by the number of males together (up to 5), which are at different
stages of moult going by the varying tail lengths.
