Black Herons?

[Dan Salter]

More info here on the recent sightings

if you click on "view all ibis pictures" there are some pretty good in flight shots singular and in groups...see if that look familiar?

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by catten80

I will snoop around my neighbours pond tomorrow with my camera in case they are still hanging around as thats where they landed. Had I realised that it was something I wouldn't be able to later identify I would have done it the day I saw them!

Would it be worth asking your neighbour? they may have been noticed by them?..or photographed?...or if he has a substantial pond he may know his water birds and be able to help id ?

[catten80]

will check the pics out now. Maybe we are close?

My neightbour is 98 but she loves birdwatching. The pond I mentioned is on her land (large farm area) but not near their house so difficult to know if she had seen any or not. She may well think I'm mad. She does have a carer that may have seen something though. We also have a large pond (about 25ft wide) but have never seen anything in it apart from mallards (which are gone now) and coots. Her pond is about double so maybe a few things lurking in the privacy there.

[John]

Hi Dan

You must read all of the thread before mentioning any more birds on this thread. I will bring your attention to something catten80 said earlier in the thread.

"Their beaks were straight also unlike the Glossy Ibis beak."

That takes out Glossy Ibis straight away.

John

Originally Posted by Dan Salter

More info here on the recent sightings

if you click on "view all ibis pictures" there are some pretty good in flight shots singular and in groups...see if that look familiar?

[Tursiops2]

Originally Posted by catten80

how would I find that out?

Are you near any of these?
Habitat Action Plans - Norfolk Biodiversity Website

T2

[Dan Salter]

Originally Posted by John

Hi Dan

You must read all of the thread before mentioning any more birds on this thread. I will bring your attention to something catten80 said earlier in the thread.

"Their beaks were straight also unlike the Glossy Ibis beak."

That takes out Glossy Ibis straight away.

John

Yep i had forgotten that...oh well...back to square one.

[paulchandler6]

No offence intended, so I am sorry if it was taken. However there is only a limited number of species that it could be and as John says if they are rarities then they would have been noticed in probably the best watched county in the country. Sometimes you have to accept that an ID is not possible and put it down to experience.
Maybe some guidelines on what is required for ID would be possible?

Paul

[Buzzy]

I feel sad that Catten80 and others including me have been told we do not know what we saw. I am with Catten80 100% on this and know what I saw (already described) I do not live in the East of England I live in the west, and I believe my sighting was earlier than Catten80's. It is possible that the birds I (and someone with me at the time0, saw, are the same birds as they sound so similar.
Where I live there are so few bird watchers around. Usually they are to be seen in groups on the south coastal areas less often the north coastal areas.
These flew by at low level in such a short space of time that it is possible for them to have gone un-noticed or even assumed to be something they wern't
I do not wind people up or jump on band wagons so please can we have some respect on our unusual sightings.
I am aware that some may wish to wind up, and hope that I am not seen as such

[Madelinew]

Don't be disheartened Buzzy. I'm following this thread with interest and hope that you both find out what these birds are.

[John]

First of all birding is not that hard when it comes to recognising families, i.e swans, Geese, Buntings, Wagtails etc. What is hard is defining the actual species. Once a family is recognised then you obviously dismiss everything else. i.e you won't look at a Wagtail if you are told that it looks like a goose.

Take the instance of the birds we are talking about in this thread. They are Heron Like (don't take into account the colour yet) so we look at all the Herons, and possibly similarly related species, i.e Egrets (or possibly bird of a similar appearance like Cormorants) and dismiss everything else. then we look at plumage and on this occasion it is all black. After that, by process of elimination we are left with very few birds, in fact only Western Reef Heron, Black Egret and Melanistic Little Egret. We then look at the fact that there were two of them. By process of elimination what are the chances of seeing two of them. After that look at the areas they are in and see if it is a watched, or underwatched area.

Putting all that together there is only one answer. If anyone else can fully research this and come up with something different I would be only too glad to hold my hands up and say sorry, but I know there isn't such evidence, nor with there be any for the forthcoming future.

These three species will not be in Britain, in two's, at this time of the year.

Don't even go down the route that you are in an underwatched area. They drift into other areas and birds of this size would have been spotted by now no matter where they are.

John