Another vote for Grey Heron - and another vote for BobTag being BirdForum's Rudest Man.
It certainly isn't obvious that it's a heron, and although you, BobTag, may have observed them often in this way in the field, it gives you no right - however much knowledge you have - to be so foul-mouthed to other members.
Oh well, I wasn't going to reply again, but seeing as it keeps getting bumped up the list and I will.
Firstly, Paul has a fair point, and I apologise for swearing. Shouldn't have, I'll blame the drink, so sorry.
Now with a clear head, let me retort, even if I am a "lonely moron", thanks Jason :t:
In my first post I simply stated my belief that the bird is an obvious Grey Heron, and I still stand by that belief. In the next post Scary-Canary disagreed with my view that it was "obvious" and strongly put his case forward, which I interpret was based on three key points:
1) - I must have superhuman powers
2) - The bird has a long neck, making to look like a Crane
3) - The original poster (Alan) wondered if it was a Pelican, and therefore it couldn't have been a obvious Grey Heron.
Hopefully no-one can argue against the interpretation of these points.
I "strongly" rebutted these arguments, which I'll clarify below as some have been predictably mis-interpreted:
1) - Of course I don't have superhuman powers. I do, though, have a lot of field experience of Grey Herons as a common british bird where I live, and have often seen them looking like this.
2) - Yes, the bird has a long neck, but then Grey Heron has a long neck. The presence of a long neck does not point towards Crane as it's a fact that Grey Herons have long necks.
3) The last point is subjective, depending on the observer. I was not having a go at Alan as some suggest, but the situation is variable on the original observer. If, for example, Killian Mullarney, David Sibley or the late Peter Grant had seen a bird and thought it "interesting", it would have different implications than, for example, if I had seen an "interesting" bird. My challange was to Scary-canary to asses what he saw, rather than what Alan posted. Surely that's what Alan wanted us to do when he posted?
Do I stand by these points? Yes. Is it utterly predicatable that some people in these forums would have mis-interpreted these arguments and flown off the deep end? Yes. Could I have been less agressive when I first posted in response to Scary's challange? Yes. Is it the rudest thing I've read in these forums? Not by a long way...
BT