Jerrabombera Wet(ter)lands

Following a report by the Ranger for this area to the COG Chatline about a lot (71 from memory) of Cattle Egrets in the grazed part of the Wetlands I wandered in on Tuesday, since that species would be good for my Bird-a-Day project.   Yes, that is still going 100 days into the year.  On Tuesday I got just-tickable views of 2 Egrets down by the Molonglo.

Today, Thursday as soon as I arrived at the Wetlands, where the sky was depositing more wetness, I spotted some white lumps on the top of some fence posts.
My binoculars soon confirmed that these were not cockatoos or gulls but Cattle Egrets.  Scanning around the paddock eventually gave me a total of 47 Cattle Egrets visible, and I suspect there were more hiding in the thistles; behind the Angus; or just down in the paleo-channels.

To prove they are Cattle Egrets here they are with a non-hippo.
 Moving over to Fulica Hide on Jerrabombera Creek I got a reasonable image of a White-faced Heron ....
 .... but the Nankeen Night Heron in the middle of nearby willows was not photographically cooperative.  It was however ticked for Bird-a-Day.

Getting back to the Swamp, the Ranger had commented that some water was back but only 6" deep.  That has I suspect increased and water is easily visible from Cygnus Hide.
So are the Swamp-hens, especially when they perch on the vertical logs.
I then wandered along Dairy Road to look through the fence into pond 6 of the Poo Pits which had a few waterfowl taking advantage of the peace occasioned by the members of the CFMEU being rained out.  Interestingly most of the birds visible were Pink-eared Ducks.

As I walked back through Kellys I could look down from the site of the former lookout and clearly see both water and fowl in the Swamp.  Small numbers of ducks (mainly Pacific Black Duck and Grey Teal as far as I could see) were continually flying in during my visit.

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