Of matters E

 I visited the marsh near Fisheries Jetty this afternoon in search of Emuwrens (or Emu-wrens - I'm not sure how the Hyphen Police are viewing matters this week).  Before getting to the area where they might be found I noticed some Egrets.  In view of recent discussion of them I took a few snaps.

This is a basic photo but it shows the gape going past the eye and the relatively long neck.  Measuring on my computer screen the neck was 38mm long and the body about 34mm.  Both good for Great Egret.

Again note the gape and also the kinked neck.

A second bird maintaining the kink in the neck while killing something.

Now they are what you call kinked necks.

As I left both birds had gone up in the world.

Here is my overall track per eBird.   The Egrets were on the peninsula bit, and I hoped to find the Emuwrens on the inland part of the loop.  

I played the call a couple of times with apparently no response.  So I moved on about 40m and it seemed my phone had carried on playing, even though I had turned it off.  Dohhhhh!  I got very good views of a male Southern Emuwren, including flying between bushes which really emphasised the length of the tail.  It didn't show itself well enough or long enough for a photo.

Here is what the 'ground' was like.  Wellies are recommended!!

A Caspian Tern flew over, Little Grassbird called from cover and a Pied Cormorant (with long ivory bill was fishing offshore.  As I left I glanced at the pool beside Lakeside Drive.  The number of Chestnut Teal had increased from 8 to 34 while I had been walking.  

Overall I recorded 22 species in about 40 minutes.

I have added below some photos of a pair of White-faced Herons making nice in the Angophoras next to our house.