Day 19.168: Sandhill cranes and a blurry mystery

Today, Exile #2 and I had a day out. We set off arounr 8 am, spent the morning and first part of the afternoon in Norway (a town in Oxford County) and then took a detour to Belgrade (a town in Kennebec County) before returning home at around 6 pm. 

The reason for our detour was to see if we could succeed where I had failed a few weeks ago and see Sandhill cranes. We arrived at the boat launch to find that other birders had caught some fleeting glimpses recently from there, but after a while without luck, (we did see other birds including the blurry mystery below) we gave up and decided to leave. We allowed ourselves a quick stop at another vantage point nearby but there was no sign from there either. Exile #2 spotted something and we both took a closer look despite thinking it was not likely to be anything interesting, and then, as we were looking through binoculars and camera, two large birds flew into our field of  view. 

Success!

Here is the blurry mystery. A distant water bird that looks vaguely like a northern pintail, but that seems unlikely so it remains a mystery for anyone who is interested to attempt to solve.