I stopped at Rowes Lagoon yesterday at 5pm, and saw three times in 15 minutes a ‘brown’ bird about the size of a White-faced Heron (also around), smaller than the White-necked Herons (12 there) but I’d say a bit bigger than the Swamp Harrier that was intermittently working the swamp. These brown birds came out of the reeds and flew low over the tops before sinking back into the reeds, all at a considerable distance from me (200m to 500m away between the centre and far side of the swamp). One time I could see the bird in profile, enough to see that it was a heron-like bird with head and neck held in heron style. I’ve only seen A Bitterns in flight once before but these did seem similar. That’s all I observed… I am pretty sure they were A Bitterns as Harvey mentioned a few weeks ago. Is there anything else that would fit the description and location?
Probably two or three different birds going by location, though theoretically possible that they were all the same bird having moved a fair distance between sightings while my attention was elsewhere.
Julian
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