Back in May - my last post I wrote a short piece on the rather impressive track record our patch has for herons and allies, stating that we stood a better chance than any of pulling a mega heron...and we did.
06:13 this morning I was panning around seeing not a lot, 3 Common Sandpiper were the highlights in fact, I was a bit bored and just looking with my naked eyes around the lake, I happened to look left as a 'heron' came in from that direction (North) and lifted my bins thinking "those wings look rounded" and OI was met with a bit of a surprise.
Still partially face on I first saw it's stout bill, bright yellowish/orange eye and grey streaked underparts, as it came past revealed the short neck, very white spotted upper wing and legs just dangling a little behind. I knew immediately this was a juvenile Night Heron, or sometimes called Black-crowned Night Heron, because I've seen literally thousands of them in the Philippines at various sites I've visited.
I didn't count how long it took to fly past, which it did at tree height and was lost as soon as it went over the trees behind the SW corner, but I'm guessing 15 seconds, give or take, but I knew in the first 2, so I enjoyed the moment to it's full and sat for about 2 minutes repeating "I've just found a County and patch tick, I've seen a !*^$£'ing Night Heron.." and laughed out loud.
I came to my senses and called a few friends and then WhatsApp's the 'Mega Alert', I spent another 30-40 minutes in the hide, filmed a pretty nice Kingfisher and then went 'walkabout' to see if it had put down to roost anywhere obvious...no such luck.
Will I be out tomorrow to check it does the same...you know I will.
Those of you who like stats, this Night Heron was;
My 19th first for the park
My 189th self found species
My 206th species
My 264th County Species
Oh yes and my 116th species this year
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