Bitterns and Barras

Saturday evening Tish and I were rather tired so decided to have an early night and we were both fast asleep by 9.30pm. As they say though the best laid plans of mice and men...
We were woken up very suddenly by a torrential downpour - the sound of the rain hitting the roof was deafening, I went outside onto the deck and you could feel the wooden planks moving as a result of how hard they were being hit. Both Tish and I thought well at least we had had a few hours sleep but NO, when we checked the time it was only 1045! And that was that, neither of us could get back to sleep..............
So by 0545 I had had enough and as Tish was dozing and went out birding for a couple of hours. It is not that often that I can get out at first light so I wanted to make the most of it and try and find the Black Bittern at Cattana - these are smallish, black herons vaguely similar in shape to Night Heron. I have flushed them a couple of times and had poor views as it flew through the forest and vanished into the trees, but I knew that first thing there was a favoured feeding pool close to one of the paths. Off I set taking the camera and crept to the viewing area and sure enough about 30m away there was a Black Bittern hunting frogs, I moved slightly to get a better view and snapped a twig and of course the bird promptly flew off and vanished! Feeling slightly aggrieved I moved more into the open to see if I could see it from a different angle and blow me if there had not been a second one about ten foot away behind one of the trees, obviously I was not prepared as I had bins not camera in hand so (yes you've guessed it) another spot the birdie picture...

and a zoomed in shot

another time I will take my scope and digiscope kit and try and get a shot of it in the trees!
It was nice to wander round that early as many of the birds had not got moved off the temporary pools and so I was able to get some slightly better pictures of a few waders

 Red Kneed Dotterel

 Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Red Kneed Dotterel and Black Fronted Dotterel

Red Kneed Dotterel and two Black Fronted Dotterel

On returning home we cleaned the house and then tried to go out swimming, but following an on going disagreement between the boys and Tish as to what was acceptable behaviour when I came out of the servo having filled the car we returned home where they spent the next 45 mins in separate rooms! We got everything ready for our BBQ this afternoon when Alan and Jen came round.
The Barra was great!! Cooked slowely over the braai with butter, garlic and limes and herbs straight from the garden. Jen had cooked pudding, sort of apple version of milktart absolutely yummy!
With many grumpy looks from the children we got them showered and into bed by 8pm and then chatted for a further couple of hours, we had moved inside by this stage as everyone was being eaten alive, before Alan remembered he was off fishing at 4am so decided to head off!

Manic week for Tish as she is on four nights, so I shall go for a walk in the forest on Tuesday before the car goes into the servo on Wednesday to get the transmission fixed, hopefully under warrantee still!