White-necked Heron, Royal Spoonbill and Spotted Harrier

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Karlbob
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White-necked Heron, Royal Spoonbill and Spotted Harrier

Birdie and I popped down to her swamp spot again this afternoon to see if we could find the spotted harrier. Got quite a few shots, a lot of work to recover them from poor lighting unfortunately, but happy enough with the results. 

White-necked Heron  Royal Spoonbill  Spotted Harrier
pacman
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great pics

Peter

Karlbob
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Thank you

Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

Araminta
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O, I love them. I know all  (devil ?) about your great outing.....I just couldn't comment, we had no power for almost 2 days.

I like the one of the Pacific Heron in breeding colours. ( there was one close by last year, hasn't turned up yet.)

M-L

Karlbob
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Thanks M-L, the Heron looks quite drab from a distance, but love the colours in the right light, and the spots on the neck are very pretty. 

Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

sue818
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What a wonderful group. The heron is great and I also like those spots. I note the red patch above the Spoonbill's beak. Is it coming into breeding colours? I have not seen that on our local ones as yet.

Sue

Karlbob
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Can you post a picture, Sue? My Simpson and Day field guide shows the red patch above the beak on both breeding and non-breeding illustrations. 

Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

sue818
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Check out my post of 17/8 Wetland Beauties and this more recent photo from 6 days ago. There may be a small baldish patch starting but but no colour is yet evident.  Sue

Araminta
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Karlbob wrote:

Can you post a picture, Sue? My Simpson and Day field guide shows the red patch above the beak on both breeding and non-breeding illustrations. 

Hi Karl, I have many photos of Royal Spoonbills on the nest feeding young, with NO red patch. Have a look at these:

DSC00292 (1)

M-L

cathshane

Great shots Karl. Love them all.

anne-marie
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I am very new to all of this - these birds are fabulous - I have never seen anything like them. Where abouts would one see birds like these? Great pics too!

anne-marie
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Woops, just read your other post, now I know where smiley

Karlbob
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Thanks for the compliments. M-L that is awesome that you got the young ones, and really interesting that they have no red patch. I wonder what it means..

Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

birdie
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I absolutely love the White necked Heron Karl as you know. I have not been able to do justice to it at all. . I am not sure if I should post my stuff now lol.  I can find no reference to the orange spots at all in two field guides, so this needs further investigation.

Well done Karl  especiallyh with the Spotted Harrier too ... shame we missed the Quail cheeky

Sunshine Coast Queensland

GeorgeP
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Colours on the White-necked look great and the Harrier shot is superb. Sounds as though you had a fun and productive day. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,

George
Melbourne, VIC

birdie
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http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Platalea-regia

It is breeding plumage that causes the orange facial patches

Sunshine Coast Queensland

Tassie

Hey Karl, you kept these a secret......lol. Top shots bud !!!!

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