White-Faced Heron…by Brad Marks

Hi folks! Rather big week for me personally. I mentioned previously I had a follow-up with my ankle surgeon last Thursday. Have to admit, was pretty apprehensive going in not really knowing what that outcome would be, which ended up being great news and not so great news. On the great front, ankle appears to be healed (as it is probably going to get) and fairly strong. All that rehab work paid off and now officially released to push it even harder and continue getting it to ultra-condition. Then the mood dampener came when he admitted the current level of “pain” will continue for some time – in the 1.5 year range. Apparently the residual level of annoyance still being experienced with shattered elbow will also occur with this latest injury. I can deal with this discomfort now that I know it has structural integrity. Celebrated with a 9 mile run yesterday (longest since the injury back in October 2024) and today went for a 25lb ruck for 7.5 miles on the hardest hills on the Illinois River bluff. I’m back baby hahahaha! As mentioned previously, I am taking a break (to develop the training plan for this October’s 100 miler race) and will be digging into Brad’s adventure queue – did I hear cheers, I think I heard cheers.

Take it away Brad…

How many times have you been birding and taking photographs when you think you know what the bird is in the viewfinder?  Happens to me all the time.  Not!

After breakfast on our first day in Cairns (pronounced “cans”) in Queensland, northern Australia, Jan and I decided to wander along the waterfront during very low tide.  Our assignment from Intrigued HQ was to photograph anything that flies for future stories.  Just “up” the beach from our hotel (towards the Equator to the left looking out over the water), a squadron of Australian Pelicans catches Jan’s eye.  Off she runs to take some photos.  About the same time, this heron-sized bird flies into view and I begin to wander to the right, or “down” the beach, to catch some photos.  At first glance, through the tiny viewfinder, I think it’s a Little Blue Heron.  It’s about the right size and color.  I do notice there are some interesting colors and a bit of what looks like aging on its face.  You know how some breeds of dogs (and Intrigued photographers) get white-faced when they are older?  That’s what this looked like.  I’ve only seen an adult Little Blue one time, but never a really old one.  I take a few (dozen) photos and move along.  Then my subconscious realizes something didn’t look quite right.  Maybe this is a teenager in between juvenile and adult plumage?  Nope.  A morph with a Snow egret?  Again, no dice.  This is a whole new bird from what we’ve seen before.  In other words, a +1 in birding parlance.

Did some devious clown bird throw a meringue pie in that Heron’s face? Hit the jump to learn more about this intriguing international specimen!

The mystery bird today is a White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae).  Frankly, 99% of the birds Jan and I saw in Australia were +1’s.  All except, are you ready for this (and a possible future story), the humble House Sparrow.  Those guys really get around.  Ironically, house sparrows were one of the only birds Merlin was able to identify in Australia without any issues.  I found out later that Merlin has difficulty identifying bird calls/sounds in Australia because their bird sound database doesn’t have enough samples for the app to cleanly identify birds.  Enough about the House Sparrow, back to the featured bird today.

The White-faced Heron territory covers most of Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Indonesia and surrounding islands.  They have nearly identical behaviours (Australian spelling) to the Little Blue Heron, at least from what I was able to observe.  They like to wade in shallow-ish water to hunt for food.  The one I spotted was solitary, but didn’t mind getting close to other wading birds.  The other birds don’t seem to mind having the heron around either.  Juvenile White-faced Herons are often confused with the Pacific Reef-Heron, though the latter is much greyer overall.

For whatever reason, the big glass tends to draw attention.  In the U.S., Jan and I may get a few questions about the equipment and what birds we are seeing.  During our first morning taking photos in Cairns, I must have been stopped well over a dozen times by well-meaning tourists and locals asking what I was taking photos of (ended a sentence with a preposition, don’t tell my college English teacher).  All were very polite and curious with their enquiries. 

Usually, I might give out two or three cards in an entire day.  This time I think I handed out twelve or fifteen cards in about two hours’ time.  YAY!  More international readers for Wildlife Intrigued.  One group was a local family just returning from an overseas holiday and wandering along the water’s edge to see what shorebirds were in town that day.  They were, self-proclaimed “twitchers”.   What’s a “twitcher” you ask?  I found one website (wish I could credit it because I never found it again) that differentiated the varying levels of bird interest and interaction.  The first group is made up of bird lovers, or casual to serious observers, called “bird watchers”.  Bird watchers usually have binoculars around their necks, and may have a camera handy.  Next are the more serious whom are referred to as “birders” (where Jan and I and Intrigued HQ staff most likely fit) who may photograph and write about birds they have seen or heard while travelling.  Lastly, “Twitchers” are serious, no holds barred-types who travel to chase rare birds to add to their life lists.  I would wager that some at Wildlife Intrigued HQ fall into the latter category.  All three groups have some sort of tracking mechanism (paper or spreadsheet or online tracking tool) to keep track of which birds they see and where and when they see them. 

Sorry, I got distracted, back to the birds.  I am always amazed at how quickly wading birds of this size can go from motionless and statuesque, focusing on a single point in front of them, to having their bill in the water (or mud as in this case) in the blink of an eye.  Or the click of a shutter.

White-faced herons also appear to eat roughly whatever a Little Blue Heron would eat, which usually means anything it can catch and swallow.  Small minnows seemed to be what was for breakfast this particular day.  Plus, there was that multi-legged thing later in the morning (I’m guessing it was a fiddler crab) the heron caught and swallowed.  I missed photographing the trapeze act of the crab being flipped into the air and caught for the swallow, sorry about that.

At this point in the morning, I remembered I’m essentially standing in the tropics without sunscreen on.  Sunscreen and cameras don’t always get along.  I’m also beginning to get a bit hungry, carrying a large camera consumes lots of calories.  Time to go back inside the hotel, drop off the cameras, get a quick snack and head to the lobby for our group excursion. 

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more White-faced Heron photos, please visit here. 

Credits:

Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.