Backyard Visitor

I love taking pictures of the critters which grace my backyard and let me tell you, this is one small backyard. Well, not really but at least 10ish feet of it is a hill behind a 2-3 foot high retaining wall. And another 8ish? square feet is occupied by deck so the yard, the habitable I can walk in part, is quite small.

Although this visitor was on the edge of the pond so technically, he/she wasn't really in the yard yard.

I apologize for the picture quality. I can only do so much at 7:15 in the morning through an upstairs window. :)


EDIT: My first thought was a crane but the head is shaped different from a crane in the book I have. It's some sort of heron/stork/egret and I'm leaning towards a juvenile grey heron being my top theory.

If anyone knows, let me know!