green heron

not so long ago, we saw a rather unusual bird causing a stir in the trees in our backyard. the other birds that live in our yard (starlings, a cardinal, sparrows, and mourning doves) were pretty angry at the unusual bird. there was chasing, shrieking, shaking of leaves; it was bird sturm und drang.
we hadn't seen a bird like the one in question ever before. it was big, made weird noises, and had a long neck. we were pretty excited. we took a picture of it in a tree (see above for useless picture). we called up our local bird expert and good buddy. he concluded, without seeing it, that it was likely a green heron, and they are not uncommon in these parts.

oh. the wind was taken out of our amateur birder sails.

we checked with the internet, and yes indeed, it was a green heron. this guy:

i still hear them in the yard sometimes, and i still get a little excited, hoping they'll nest at our place.