Sunday, November 29, 2009

Little Bittern caught out in open


Australian Little Bittern (Ixobrychus dubius) makes a rare daylight foray along the edge of scleria in the northeast corner of the main Tyto lagoon early yesterday. Couldn't have asked the bird - a male of subdued colouring - to do more regarding position and poses.


But sadly I was 50 metres away across the water and unable to move much closer. In fact, even at such distance the bird would have darted back into cover in a flash at any sudden or great movement.


Talking of movement, the clumsiness of the bird's passage jumping and jerking across the base of the scleria was surprising. All my previous sightings suggested a life of stealthy, silent stalking, not clumsy and surely noisy leaping from foothold to foothold. My toehold on knowledge grows ever tinier!

9 comments:

Mosura said...

If it finds out you posted the pics on the Internet it may never co-operate with you again. As they say, once bittern twice shy.

Great catch!

Boobook said...

Great behaviour shots. Buttonquails and bitterns - what a pair!

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Tony
You say: "My toehold on knowledge grows ever tinier!"
On the contrary, your knowledge increases - as does ours.
lovely image especially #1.
Cheers
Denis

mick said...

Great photos. I'm glad the bird stood still where you could see and photograph it - and even better that you shared with us all!

Tyto Tony said...

Hi Alan: But as they say: Bittern expects every man to do his shooty.

Hi Boobook: Now all we need is for some Grass Owls to turn up.

Hi Denis: Every crumb of info I gain pushes another out, I fear.

Hi Mick: Sharing is a lot of the fun, isn't it?

Snail said...

Those pictures are excellent! But I can't think of any puns to match the ones in the comments. (Which is probably for the best.)

Tyto Tony said...

I plead self-defence!

Sebastian said...

I am jealous! What a special moment, congratulations. There are few things better in like than when a hard to see bird poses for you.

Tyto Tony said...

Thanks Sebastian. Hope next one is a bit closer.

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