16/07/06 Little egret, Egretta garzetta, at Muddy Creek, Hawkes Bay

This bird, almost certainly the same one, has been seen at this location since the late 1980s. I hadn't seen the bird for a little while, so decided to head down to look for it and the off chance of seeing the Intermediate egret that had been seen there earlier in the year - click here for details on that bird. I didn't manage to locate the Intermediate, but did find the little egret feeding beside the road near the sewer outfall, and a nice comparison was the relatively huge great egret (White heron) nearby. I managed to get some nice shots of both birds, see below.