Cattle Egret at Travis Wetland

[pfe92nz]

20221124_5072_Canon EOS 7D Mark II-600 mm-2.jpg (435.14 KiB) Viewed 971 times

I stopped at Spoonbill Corner (corner of Travis and Frosts Road) at 9:30am today to photograph any flying Spoonies. Saw one coming in from height, then realised it wasn't a Spoonie but a heron (Kotuku) before finally confirming a Cattle Egret. It landed on the Spoonbill tree and was there a few minutes before a Spoonie chased it off and it flew further into Travis Wetland.

John (aka pfe92nz)

[GrahameNZ]

Good score John.
That's the first C Egret for Travis since the earthquakes.
Andrew no doubt has a date for that.
Have spent several hrs this afty looking for the beast.
Not in any of the places that it could be, including those well of track.
Looked at Travis south and the south end of Kate Sheppard.
Only place at T I missed was the pond behind the houses on the west side.
Cheers for posting it so quick
Somewhere round about there is a bird we don't get in this part of town these days.

[Jan]

That bird looks to be in breeding plumage........or close to it. Might be worth checking out spoonbill colonies nearby, Andrew and all?

[Clinton9]

This bird may be a two-year-old subadult Cattle egret, just started to moult its innermost primaries.

[Jan]

Thanks Clinton, much appreciated.

[andrewcrossland]

A good sighting and always intriguing to see them in breeding plumage and wonder at what they’re up to. Yes this is the first record at Travis wetland for quite a while, they were an annual visitor in the 1980s to that site.

[Adam C]

Not one of the West-side Ellesmere birds on walkabout? Always been a couple of those ones in breeding plumage over the years.