I’ve also seen Striated Heron on a freshwater
pond in East Lakes in Sydney (though not too far from Botany Bay) and I have
seen one also about 10-20 km away from Mangroves at Cattai NP in Sydney’s
north-western outskirts.
Edwin
-----Original Message-----
From:
[ On Behalf Of Greg Clancy
Sent: Wednesday, 1 December 2004
10:18 AM
To:
Cc: Birding-aus
Subject: [BIRDING-AUS] Re:
Misplaced Bittern
Striated Herons do regularly inhabit
freshwater environments. They have been observed 110 km upstream from the
mouth of the Brisbane River (I. Gynther 'A Striated Heron Butorides striatus Inhabiting
a Freshwater Section of the Brisbane River' Australian Bird Watcher 1995, 16:
145-151).
In the Clarence Valley, NSW, we
regularly have them at Grafton and a pair nests at Lilydale, west of
Copmanhurst, well into fresh water. A number of years ago I saw one at
Little Dandahra Creek in Gibraltar Range National Park. Although an
extremely unusual location it is only 20 km as the heron flies from the
nesting pair at Lilydale. Glenn Holmes unkindly said to me
"There are some records best forgotten" but I know what I saw and
eliminated all the other possibilities from consideration. If I had seen
it at Wooli or Red Rock I would have had no hesitation in calling it. It
had the grey plumage and yellow legs of the Striated Heron.