This really is so interesting! Thank you to Candy and Gerda for sharing it with us!!

Saw the same two at Lake panic on Thursday but although the Grey Heron was having a jolly good time on the back of a hippo and not on the back of the Goliath.

I directed Andre Botha of EWT to this post and he said: 
 
In my opinion, the Grey Heron (sitting on it’s nest) is clearly alarmed (raised crest) as the Goliath is wanting to make a snack of the nest contents, i.e. eggs or chicks. Look at the very interested glint in the GH’s eye! 
 
Regards 
 
André Botha 
 
Manager: Birds of Prey Working Group 
 
Endangered Wildlife Trust

All very interesting & must have been great to see. 
 
Thanks to Candy for bringing it to our attention & well done to Gerda for capturing the moment!

Please refer Andre Botha to the following photos. I was with Gerda at Lake Panic, and I can confirm that that these two building a nest together, and that they Goliath Heron was most certainly not interested in making a snack out of nest contents! These two were clearly very interested in each other, and not in eggs! I would appreciate some expert opinion on whether this is normal behavior between different heron species. These photos clearly show mating behavior. 
 
http://www.flickr.com/photo s/willievs/4111123831/in/pool-globalbird trekkers 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/w illievs/4067567104/in/pool-globalbirdtre kkers 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/will ievs/4051406471/in/pool-globalbirdtrekke rs 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/williev s/4056876547/in/set-72157617081480829/

I have referred your comments to Andre, Willie :-)

people, I have posted the links Willie provided in the main body of the blog post as the comment box automatically makes links unusable.

Andre will be going to check on this phenomenon when he is next in the park :-)

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