Monday, July 27, 2009

Heron hot-foots it for food

White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae) stalks through a shallow pool at Tyto. All that muddy water must make it hard to see prey. But the heron has a sneaky secret. It sometimes wiggles a foot forward and back, feeling through the mud for food.


Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarba melanoleucos) gives some wing feathers a brisk airing as morning sunlight floods its paperbark perch. The cormorants spend much of the day defending their stretches of lagoon from rivals ofthe same species, but ignore competition from the resident Snake-necked Darters.

3 comments:

Gouldiae said...

G'day Tony,
Nice post. Great observation, I've not seen a Heron do the foot wiggling bit. You know what I'm going to do every time I see one now!
Regards,
Gouldiae

mick said...

Hi Tony, yes it's the same bird but nothing else is the same. I really admire both your photographic technique and your PP technique. I have a lot to learn :-)

Tyto Tony said...

Hi Gouldiae: Wiggle warning. Watch out for strange coloured birds on telly.

Hi Mick: Too much praise for an old obsessive!

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