Venus Pool - Spoonbill!!!!!

Just when you think nothing remotely interesting is happening locally, what should turn up? A Spoonbill no less and there was me..... busy in the garden!! I'm not quite sure when I've left the house so quickly (thanks for the heads up Rob and Geoff!) and despite being nearly an hour after it's arrival it was quite happily feeding out in the middle.....

Busily feeding like a mad thing and catching small fish!

It is there, honest :-)

An obliging wingflap (plus of course the pale bill) clearly a young bird, lots of black on the wing tips.

We had watched it for an hour or so when it started to come ever nearer!

A bit of a ruffle here.

Is this really happening?

Then suddenly, it was feeding in front of the hide! Simply stunning!

It was quite close!!

A quick walk on the mud before it returned to feeding in the middle.

Here's a couple more  close up shots to finish off with....

This is the fourth Spoonbill at Venus Pool. The last one was 10 Dec 1997 and then you have to go back to  25-29 Nov 1990 and  21-22 Oct 1994. We've had quite a wait!!