HERON IN, HERON OUT... EGRET-FULLY

 

One afternoon last week I went for a stroll along Maroochy River after work. A beautiful afternoon with little wind.  I was about to take a snap of this boat when I saw an egret flying in so managed to get a shot of him about to land.

Just as I was preparing to take another with him sitting on the boat, he took off so I scored another of him taking off.  I was very pleased with both photos. Egret-fully I don't live on the river so I could take extended visits.  One day...

If you look closely you can see a tiny fish in the beak of this white faced heron.

 

This particular day I saw a few herons. Here is another perched on the roof of a derelict fishing shack. The day before when I drove home beside the River, I had seen a black cormorant drying his feathers on the same roof but there was nowhere to park so I could get a shot.  Opportunity missed but this made up for it.

I think these strange fruit are herons too.  The setting sun is making their feathers look brown rather than grey.  

There are always a few pelicans around too, of an afternoon. This one is a very large boy.  I missed a shot of him flying unfortunately.  His wing span is amazing.

Here, you can see 3 perched on light poles on the Maroochy River Bridge. There were also some smaller birds I couldn't see very well on a few of the other poles. 

 This plover or masked lapwing seems to be eyeing off the soldier crabs that were marching around everywhere; although I didn't see him eat any.

I loved the different bands of colour on this photo of them. You can see the crabs highlighted on the edge of the water.

By far the most common bird around are the rainbow lorikeets; hundreds of them.

 They are so noisy as they fly in to roost, I imagine the locals get fed up with their screeching.... and their poop!