Bittern in Cornwall?

[SW Animal Lover]

Twitchers dont get excited yet!

Whilst on a boat the other day, I noticed what I thought was a bird in a tree, it turned out to be a dead piece of branch, but as I was scanning the tree with my binoculars, I noticed a bird, hardly visible with the naked eye it was so well camouflaged. At first I thought it was a buzzard, because of its brown plummage and size, but then saw it didnt have a bird of prey beak but more that of a cormorant. It was sat with its head pointing up in the air but it did not have its wings outstretched as cormorants often do. When I got home I checked in my bird book, and the only thing that it looked similar to in the photos was a bittern, the beak, size and plummage were all right. But it appears they are very rare and are not down this end of the country.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what it might have been please? A Bittern, a young Cormorant or something else?

Many thanks.

[wellies101]

Did you notice the feet colour?

Head pointed up is the typical camouflage posture for Bittern. What time of day was it as if it was evening it could have gone into a tree to roost?

I don't think theres many/any records of late of Bittern in Conrwall in summer, but.......

[SW Animal Lover]

Unfortunately I didnt notice the feet.

The time of day was about 2pm. It was a very dull, rainy, windy day, it that makes any difference?

In my book though, it says they like reed beds, but there arent any around the area, its an estuary with loads of other wadding birds, ducks, herons, egrets and so on.

Could it have been a juvenile cormorant? It looked bigger than a cormorant though, hence me thinking it was a buzzard at first glance, and it had white amongst the brown plummage.