The changes to the Cygnus hide are part completed, and I must say the result is a more, well, airy feel – although the new back-screening will certainly be needed. It will be possible for the more Bunyip-averse birdwatcher to see if it is safe to enter without actually having to do so. There is a new reptile-observing facility in the form of open grilles set into the floor. The option of darkening by closing the hinged shutters is no longer available as these have been removed - although those at Bittern and Ardea hides are not available either, having been padlocked open for some reason. These are part of your standard hide design, but I don’t think they ever got used much.
Not a lot around the wetlands at the moment - a couple of G Egrets, and a couple of hunting BSKs making use of the ironwork for watching perches in the near-total absence of suitable trees at the STW. If the pair represents the juveniles seen there last Spring, they’ve lost their rusty collars, as you’d expect. Yet another young butcherbird, one of the current diaspora, similarly using a man-made perch. A distant Little Eagle looked a lot darker than the medium-dark one that’s been around in recent years, but I’ll need to get a closer look at it.
