By himself

Although I have no idea which gender this white faced grey heron is, I have chosen to label it a he, at least for the title.

A very relaxed evening last night, and then awake from before dawn. Before heading out on my run I did take some shots of the sky, and more were taken early on the run. I got to Snells Beach itself, where the tide was 2 1/2 hours past high water mark, right on sunrise (according to the chart I was just looking at). Sunrise was behind the headland on the right of this picture, taken six minutes after sunrise.

Because there was still a lot of interesting pools of water at this (southern) end of the beach, the herons had come to feed. And had they come. Almost immediately I saw four herons together, and tried to get close enough for a shot. The pictures I took over the next five minutes were a mixture of interesting and appalling; blurred through movement, or poor focus, or both.

I gave up on trying to get a picture of them in the shallows, and then saw a half dozen (which included three of the four originals) on the grass bank. As I again neared them, they went back to the water! Most stayed together, but this one went off by himself, and I really like the soft colours of the sky reflecting in the water.

As I proceeded along the beach front, more of the rising sun and sky became apparent through changing angles. The colours were dramatic, and the number of herons in view rose. By the time I left the beach and headed inland, I had gone past at least four groups of at least five herons. I have not previously seen quite so many on this beach at the one time.

The loop I did this morning took me out along the main road and then down to the next bay along, Algies Bay. This is where (two weeks ago) I saw the paradise shelduck (also known as putangitangi) and speculated about her protecting the nest. This morning as I went along the path above the bay, the drake was in the water squawking loudly; so I stopped, and watched as the duck led four ducklings into the water, whence they paddled furiously away from the shore. Desperate attempts to get a photograph were relatively unsuccessful, as I was too far away for the little compact.

A great morning for birds.