Great Blue Heron on St. Mary's

[Hotspur]

A juv. Great Blue Heron has been seen this afternoon on St. Mary's from the ISBG hide at lower moors. First for Britain.

[AndyB]

thanks hotspur - just in time for the weekend - long overdue - although I seem to recall a ship-assisted bird on a ship in Bristol decades ago?? - let us know if any photos surface.

[Joe Ray]

Pic by Martin Goodey now in the Stop Press (http://surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery9)gallery

[AndyB]

nice bird!

[I -am -condorman]

Hi
Just a quick question
There is a posting of an Immature Grey heron on th ID pages this shows a large amount of brown on its wings
could anybody advise what are the key features which rules out Great blue as an ID for this bird?

[AndyB]

Hi Condorman, good post. On the 2nd page of ID Discussion Gallery (http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery28&start=13), Sean Nixon posted some flight shots of a Grey Heron at Minsmere in October with rusty brown coverts. Hard to see much else such as tarsus.

Some ID Frontiers links from 1997
Anthony McGeehan and Bruce Mactavish - scroll down to 15 and 16 (http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind9712a&L=birdwg01)
Nick Lethaby etc - scroll down to 10 (http://listserv.arizona.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A1=ind9711d&L=birdwg01)

Hard Copy - I do not have my Birding World to hand but maybe someone else does and could summarise
Great Blue and Grey Heron:
BW, Vol. 11: No. 1, Jan. 1999 - Gantlett
Bd, Vol. 34: No. 1, Feb. 2002 - Lethaby, McLaren

Maybe it pushed on to Cornwall?