Visiting friends over the weekend led us to going for a swim at the mouth of the beautiful Noosa River.
It was nearly midday with people everywhere. There were kids splashing and playing noisily on the sand and in the shallow water, plus a Coast Guard boat, jet skies and pleasure craft of all types only a few metres away in the deeper water. Basically, there was not a free space anywhere in one of the most popular South Queensland holiday destinations.
The car park was overflowing on this glorious day and so it felt like the chance of any sort of wildlife encounter was as close to zero as one could imagine.
Yet the next thing I knew, out of nowhere, only 5 metres away from me and in the middle of everything, this magnificent White Faced Heron appeared.
I was able to snap a couple of decent photos on my S21 Samsung phone before anyone even noticed.
I don't think he had spotted any fish but there many have been human food scraps around for him to consume.
The children on the beach started to notice our new friend and started to get closer but the size of the bird, which must have been full size and close to 70cm tall with a menacing looking beak, scared quite a few of them. The encounter only lasted a few minutes but was amazing.
