A crane or a heron??

[skinnydog]

I saw a very elegant, sort of steel grey bird today, it was flying into a pond just beside me. It was really quite tall, lean and had some black on it and from what I could see I think its breast was white or much lighter grey. What would it have been? Oh and it had thin skinny long legs on it. As you can tell - I ain't no twitcher!!!!

[Pterodroma]

Hi skinnydog

If it was flying into a pond during the day then it was almost certainly a Grey Heron.

We do get Common Cranes in Caithness, particularly in the Spring (there was one as Charleston last week) but during the day they are always seen on open fields, often stubble or freshly turned earth.

There was one at Dunnet a few years back which roosted every night on the pond at St John's, but did not arrive at the pond until dusk.

Regards

Pterodroma

[porshiepoo]

It be one of those darned Grey Herons after taking someones prize fishies probably.

We are constantly looking for new ideas to help protect our Koi from those bloomin creatures.

Don't get me wrong, before we moved here I would have loved to see one of them. I even commented to my BIL (when he was gutted that a Heron had completely emptied his pond of his huge Koi) that I would stock a pond just to get the chance to see one of em. :eek:
What a stupid cow I was. lol. I have no problem with them eating the frogs and the newts but to see them kill a koi and just leave it is pretty awful :(

Take em off the protected species list I say.

[Kevin Milkins]

I saw a very elegant, sort of steel grey bird today, it was flying into a pond just beside me. It was really quite tall, lean and had some black on it and from what I could see I think its breast was white or much lighter grey. What would it have been? Oh and it had thin skinny long legs on it. As you can tell - I ain't no twitcher!!!!

Hi skinnydog, as pterodroma has said, it is most likely to be a Grey heron (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greyheron/index.aspx) as shown here.

Although they are an elegant bird, as pointed out by porshiepoo, they can be a fish keepers nightmare and I still get a nervous twitch every time I see one.
I came home from shopping one day and saw the Heron sitting in the field next to the house and I thought I had got home just in time, how wrong I was. It had taken several small fish and a prize Israeli Silver Carp that was worth over £200 pounds.:mad:

Herons don't like to land on water, but land nearby and then wade in, so I put a fence about a foot off the ground and criss crossed some electric fence wire over the pond which seemed to do the trick.

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm196/kevinmilkins/1908.jpg?t=1271948827

[nemosia]

Kas found a crane at Broubster yesterday, possibly the Charleston bird. It was back at Broubster this morning. I arrived just as it was heading west.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i160/nemosia/Caithness/20100429-AN-01.jpg


Hi skinnydog

If it was flying into a pond during the day then it was almost certainly a Grey Heron.

We do get Common Cranes in Caithness, particularly in the Spring (there was one as Charleston last week) but during the day they are always seen on open fields, often stubble or freshly turned earth.

There was one at Dunnet a few years back which roosted every night on the pond at St John's, but did not arrive at the pond until dusk.

Regards

Pterodroma