Another Beautiful Day

This was the estuary this morning - the beautiful weather continues. We are in the last month of Autumn and normally there would be snow on those mountains in the background by this time. I see we are forecast a temperature of 21 degrees for tomorrow, so this incredible summery autumn is  going to continue.

This morning I watched two herons in some behaviour I haven't seen before. Keeping a good space between them they each looked up into the sky, and walked a few steps forward and a few steps back, then circled on the spot. This maneuver was repeated over and over, heads craned to the sky all the time. As each repeat started the male lifted his back feathers up letting them sink again as he circled. Is this some sort of courtship dance?  Is Autumn the time they would be courting anyway? Eventually they stopped and carried on feeding normally. I am hoping someone will know the reason they were acting like this.

I have put a pic of the male with his feathers raised in extras. I should have taken a video - being wise after the event.