Last year, my DH and I watched a pair of green herons and their nestlings for weeks. They were living in a huge bush of some kind, which grew over a creek next to a bike path ride on 3 days a week. Recenetly we were very sad to see that that bush has been cut back 90% now, so they could not use it. To our joy, last week we noticed 2 adult green herons flying in and out of an enormous (40 ft wide by 20 ft high) white banksia rose, which was growing over the same creek a little ways away from the bush herons used last year.

Ha! Now every day we bike there, we stop and see one or two adult green herons around that bush, but it is so big, and we are about 20 ft away from it on the bike path, that we could not see them after they disappeared into the bush. Today I took my camera, and used the zoom lense to look at that rose bush. While I was doing that, one of the adult birds appeared from downstream, flew into the bush, and then rested a bit (to fast for me to get a pic of him), and flew away. I looked at the bush again through my camera, and FINALLY spotted the nest, and the other adult (who I assume is the female) sitting on it. Here is the best of the several pictures I took:

Here is one showing her eggs as she is re-organizing them:

So, roses have another use - housing!

Jackie