Was recently up in my local park, again looking for those elusive swans like previous visits. Ended up shooting mostly the Heron that hang out around the lake. As I came around the far side of the lake there is a hidden trail which gets you closer to the back of the island. I spotted one of the usual Heron perched on a rock, along with some others dotted around the surrounding treed line. All of a sudden there was an awful commotion, birds screaming everywhere. The guy on the stone took flight out of nowhere, Too fast for me to catch a shot. By the time I had the camera ready he had landed in the trees and a rather unusual bird swooped in and took his place!

I’ve never seen a bird like him/her. It looked and moved like the local Grey Heron, but was almost black with the exception of a grey/white front and the yellow beak. It was kind of hard to get a good shot of it from my position as it would not turn around and continued flapping and squawking.

Was it another type of Heron or perhaps an Egret. Despite scouring the Google Machine, im none the wiser. The only contender that I came across, but nothing definitive was a Cormorant, But Im still not sure, the images I saw did not really show the grey/white chest and yet the head/beak and splayed wings look spot on. Perhaps one of you might recognise it and share?