I looked for the juv. yellow-crowned night-heron both yesterday eve and this am and no luck. Many black-crowneds though.
I hate seeing an unusual bird only once briefly, esp. when it comes as a surprise. I realized that I did a stupid thing: all my field marks were relative: i.e, "smaller white triangle marks," "darker," "smaller overall"--I didn't think quickly enough to confirm a completely dark bill. And to top off my stupidity (hey, it was early on a dark cold morning) I didn't take a quick digital pic with my new cell phone. So since my own field notes wouldn't satisfy the MOU threshold for reporting and accepting it, I'm going to hold off "counting" it for myself. (Some of you know that I'm doing a green birding challenge this year.) I'll keep looking, hoping to clinch my confidence on the ID. And if anyone else sees it, I'd appreciate a heads up! Thanks! Diana Doyle S. Mpls