Nankeen Night Heron (Nycticorax caledonicus)

Being back at the clinic for Louises penultimate chemo treatment, I

wandered over to the nearby lake to see if anything was about, other

than ducks, ducks, ducks. There wasn't.

A young man approached me and we talked about photography for a

while and he showed me some of his images on his iPad.... I gave him

my card and wrote PN's address on it and returned to the clinic. About

20 minutes later, my mobile (cell phone) cheeped and it was a message

from Don, to say he had spotted a Night Heron. I did not wait around....

The Night Heron is the only nocturnal heron in Australia. Prolific in the

Eastern States, but a little rare here in the West. They hide away in

dense foliage during the day and feed on fish and young chicks at night.

I had about 20 minutes of filming before it disappeared into dense bush

to hide.......... excitement is hardly the word.

I now need to process all the other images and will populate my "Heron"

folder over the next few days.

This one is Louises favourite.

Look forward to your comments...............

Regards

Nice lighting on this one Grayham.  You might have cropped in a little closer but I like the natural setting. 

Looks very similar to our Black-crowned Night Heron up here;  Nycticorax nycticorax

Hi Grayham, I like the dramatic lighting in this shot a lot, the eye stands out, the sun reflection on the beak held nicely, as did the white in the thigh, you got the head feather in the shot, all in all an excellent job.  Well isolated from a difficult back ground.

....... I too keep looking at the crop, and wondering if a "tad" more off the left might not further enhance the presentation..... need to play around a bit.

Thanks for your visit and comments........ I was very lucky to have had quite an extended shoot with this guy and you may like to have a look at my other shots of him.

Best regards

So nice to have you stop by. It is so rare to have these guys out and about in the daylight..... in fact my Aussie partner has never had a live veiwing.... so I made the most of this encounter. This was her favourite.

I shot about 70 images and am still working through my "self-critical" culling process. I have however posted some more in the Heron folder that you may care to look at.

The best afternoon in a long time.

Thanks for your kind and generous observations.... I appreciate your input.

Regards