Little Egret with irregular plumage close to Broome – 10,000 Birds

We’ve got continued to observe the birds alongside the sting and on the Nice Northern Freeway to the south of Broome throughout Roebuck Plains. The depth of water over the freeway varies each day and the bird-life varies too. Many components of the north of Australia are nonetheless inaccessible resulting from flooding and the very best place to examine is the Foremost Roads web site earlier than going for a drive. There may be not plenty of site visitors at any time, so you’ll be able to pull to the sting of the bitumen and cease to look at the birds. Don’t go away the bitumen or you could effectively get critically bogged!

There have been extra Nice Egrets, Intermediate Egrets and Little Egrets arriving and in addition extra Pied Herons, which have numbered as much as 24 just lately. There are additionally White-faced Herons, however surprisingly we’ve but to watch a White-necked Heron there this 12 months. The center of the part of freeway that runs by means of Roebuck Plains has been the deepest part of water just lately and the place the birds wish to feed on or beside the freeway as above and under.

Birds feeding on and close to the freeway

Final Sunday we have been parked within the water on the sting of the freeway taking a look at all the birds when Grant seen that there was an odd chicken. The chicken was simply over some lengthy grass simply past the sting of the freeway and it was amongst Little Egrets. This particular person was the identical dimension as a Little Egret and had the identical options, nevertheless it was not white.

I used to be capable of simply see the odd particular person chicken by standing on the facet steps of our four-wheel drive. I tried a number of pictures, however as a result of peak of the freeway above the flooded panorama it was relatively tough. In the long run I balanced within the automobile standing proper on the sting and I might simply seize the odd plumage. As an alternative of being a white Little Egret it was largely gray. We imagine that this chicken could also be displaying melanistic tendencies.

Little Egret with irregular plumage

That is our first encounter of a Little Egret with irregular plumage, so regardless of the small concern of the grass being tall or myself being not as tall as I’d have preferred on this event the pictures above are the very best that I might handle. I assumed I’d relatively doc one thing relatively than nothing on this event and if we get an opportunity to get higher images then I’ll.

Beforehand we’ve encountered birds which were white when they need to have been darkish. This features a white Crimson Knot in 2011 and a Larger Sand Plover with irregular plumage between 2016 and 2018.