The little Bittern at Audley was also out and about c.7 a.m. yesterday
(Sunday), in the top of the cumbungi on the west bank only 15 metres above the
weir. The colours it displayed were magnificent in those circumstances. It
allowed me to approach slowly to within about 3.5 metres. I was impressed with
how powerful its legs appeared to be, bigger and stronger than suggested by the
field-guides. Eventually when someone came along to photograph it, it
unobligingly dropped into the bottom of the reeds, then slunk through them away
from the weir, giving a nice impression of the way they can slip through the
vegetation. Eventually it flew across the river into the reeds on the other
side.
When I came back from a birding walk up along the Garrawarra ridge about 1.30,
it was cheerfully catching tadpoles in the open, not metres from the carpark
where children were squealing, teenagers shouting and car-engines revving.
This bird has decidedly not read the field-guides, which tell it to be shy and
nocturnal!
John Clifton-Everest
Michael J Hunter wrote:
> Although the weather was overcast and windy, yesterday I eventually got
> excellent scope views of the Little Bittern in the thickest clump of reeds
> on the east side of Audley Weir, from the picnic table opposite, having
> spent a fruitless half hour scanning with binoculars from every vantage
> point. It was foraging at water-level behind the outer-most reeds and easily
> identifiable, but then climbed, very clumsily, to the top of some thicker
> stems like an oversized Reed-Warbler, twice jabbing at insects. It was a
> male, at one point had an altercation with a Moorhen and moved very fast up
> a stem then turned back a threatening bill until the Moorhen left.
> Michael Hunter
> Mulgoa Valley
> 50km west of Sydney Harbour Bridge
>
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--
Associate Professor John M. Clifton-Everest
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Sydney
(61) (2) 9351 2262
Fax (61) (2) 9351 5318
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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