cranes in surrey?

[wildsusy]

On Saturday afternoon, driving through Abinger Village in Surrey, I saw a heron - sized bird that I could not possibly identify. Its wings were not rounded enough to be a heron or the occasional little egret that visits the village.. Its wingbeats were a bit faster too, and its neck was quite long and outsetretched (too long to be a gull) It looked rather crane-like. What are your thoughts on this??

[aeshna5]

Would be impossible to say for certain from your description. Not impossible but I haven't seen any recent reports from Surrey of a Crane. Most are in Norfolk plus an introduced population on the Somerset levels. Birds do wander + there have been a couple of reports around the London area over the last year.

[solus]

Cormorant? Did you see any colour or was the bird silhouetted against the sky?

[captaincarot]

there's also a population of cranes in norfolk and suffolk.

their wings are as big a rounded as a herons which they very much resemble in flight. except for the neck sticking out the front.

they fly with quite slow deliberate wingbeats very much reminiscent of a herons.

hope that helps

[wildsusy]

of course, it was a cormorant! mystery over I dunno why that didn't occur to me when I saw it lol..