Yellow crowned Night Heron photo gift

 So your in a dark riverside lane before light , its lightly lit and your trying to watch a super rare Yellow crowned Night Heron as it preys on Crayfish, looking, watching through bins or a scope, there is just no light to shoot a camera

It becomes a waiting game....

 As you follow the bird, you just dont expect it to fly upstream toward you, land then walk around on river rocks that the morning light is shining on through the tree cover in front of your eyes and force you to take off a 1.4 converter as its just to close to full frame..

Yellow crowned Night Heron -Belcarra Mayo Ireland

 SO..A Yellow crowned Night Heron has been found in a creek in a small village of Belcarra.

An American Species thst has crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Awsome

There was all sorts of logistics, reasonability, hurdles to overcome to make it up to Mayo to see this exceptional bird. So myself and my son left home at 2am to be on-site in Belcarra before light, after all it is a Night Heron.

4.15 in the dark with no one atound we walked onto the Riverwalk looking up-stream in the dark when the bird jumped down out of the tree onto a rock in the river only a couple of metres away and proceeded to walk the opposite bank in front of us but really quite hard to see in the dark .It felt kinda cosmic and a unique experience to be in the dark with a Yellow crowned Night Heron, and believe me they are very active in the dark

OMG.

As the light came up we were joined by 2 Dublin birders and a few locals that were showing massive interest and the village overall was impressive..... after a bit the Heron moved down to the river bridge where it stood on a log below for over an hour not doing much and seemed ready to roost for the day.

8:15 we headed for breakfast and we were back on the road home delighted in what we had seen.

More photos 

http://www.alifeattheshoreline.com/2024/05/yellow-crowned-night-heron-photos.html

Hooded Merganzer

After a small wait, as the Teal and Wigeon moved out of the reeds and grasses for the open water the Hooded Merganzer came down from upstream were it moved in mingled for a short while before shooting off at speed down estuary.

it was time to move on for the White winged Scoter at Achill, that was a whole different story in crazy weather conditions