Our farm is home to all kinds of different species of wildlife many of which my husband and I can identify by sight or sound. Occasionally something that we are not familiar with grabs our attention and we search our reference books and the internet to try to identify it.

For the last two years this bird has lived in the area somewhere around our pond. We would often see it feeding on the edges of the pond. If we got to close it would usually fly up into a nearby tree. I have yet to see it this year.

After looking through our bird book and looking at various websites my best guess is that it is a Bittern.  I would love to hear from anyone who could possibly confirm this or make another positive I.D.