I saw a pair of these birds in my neighbor's yard this morning:

I also made a larger collage of several images that's too heavy to post on the front page. They're clearly some kind of wading bird; unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any shots of them in flight; they have impressive wingspans. I'd guess they were about 18 inches tall standing fully upright. I'm not sure how clearly you can see some of the details; they have a reddish orange rim around their eyes and a thin white crest. I've never seen them before, so I'm guessing they're non-local migrants.

¶ 1488 Posted at 01.17 PM ⇒ No Comments ( science! | pictures )