My heartfelt thanks to those who have reported on the discovery and
location of the Little B's here so fully. After some false alarms
and then moderate success finally seeing the male a few days ago, I
decided to hit the lake this morning after waking too early. I
paddled towards the pool between the reeds and the fisherman's path
looking for the youngster, and to my absolute astonishment was
treated to 2 hours observation of an apparently little concerned
immature Little Bittern only metres away. I enjoyed the luxury of
sitting in comfortable kayak, observing the rather attractive critter
perching, foraging, hunting at the water's edge, preening, and
travelling inside the shrubbery (in itself amazing to watch, I give
it a considerably greater degree of difficulty than walking on
water). It did a pretty poor job of camouflage -- once when I
sneezed and once for some other reason I couldn't detect - a quick
neck stretch up, then back to business. Most of this was in full
sun, with the sun behind me, so photography was perfect. (Apart from
the fact that some of the best views were when it was too close for
my lens to focus - again).
It also called during most of the time, a pleasant chirrup a bit like
a cat's friendliest vocalisation, the brrbrrbrr one, half meow, half
purr. At one stage I left it for half an hour to give it and me a
rest - when I returned I could hear it still calling quietly and it
was still in the same location as when I left.
I don't know about the parents, but this youngster does not appear to
be phased by the attention at all. I would have left much more
quickly if it had looked bothered, and although I can't read its mind
I'm pretty certain that no undue stress was involved. Mostly by the
fact that it approached me as much as it did, and it was certainly
relaxed enough to preen, stretch, forage and do other optional things
that I doubt it would do if worried or stressed.
I suppose I won't ever get such an opportunity again, so I'm thankful
for the literally hundreds of photos I have yet to go through. One
attached shows when it came down from it's most attractive perch up
amongst the purple flowers, to do some waterside hunting. I'll send
a couple for the Gallery and put some on flickr when I can.
I did see one of the adults flying south to north at one stage.
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