One Bittern, Twice Shy

This one also harks back to one of my first postings, entitled When is a REALLY Lousy Photo OK? Bitterns represent a subfamily of herons, generally short-necked skulkers, often partly nocturnal, of dense reed-beds. Until last week I'd never managed to photograph one, but an Australian Little Bittern has been hanging around near the bird hides at Jerrabomberra Wetlands for the past week or so. Others (including my friend Martin of House of FranMart - see alongside) have had more luck catching it in the open, but it hasn't happened for me yet.

On the other hand it's probably worth illustrating its extremely cryptic nature - after all, you can always get decent pics on the web! This species was only recently separated from the widely distributed Little Bittern and given the name Ixobrychus dubius, though the erratic English/Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews recognised it as such, and applied this name, back in 1912. It is one of the world's smallest herons, being scarcely more than 30cm long and 100 grams in weight. 

OK, here it is...

No??

Does this help?

OK, fair enough; here's the blown-up version.

Still pretty dodgy I fully admit. But sometimes, that's all you see. And it's taken me some decades to get that one... Back tomorrow with something perhaps a bit more tangible!