IOW birds and nature

Common crane? Brading marshes (RSPB) yesterday (10/03/16)

Only have a description of this bird that possibly was a grus species.

I was going to leave Brading after spending a couple of hours there and around 5pm had one last scan of the area and locked onto a bird in flight. Initial views were side on but it gradually banked and left due east of me and eventually out of sight. It was fairly distant but its jizz suggested a crane rather than a heron: I noted its long neck/head structure that it never retracted (unlike a grey heron say - perhaps the other most likely species to confuse it with). Its wing beats were shallow and the primaries were dark and deeply fingered (again more so than a grey heron would show). Also long legs extended. Flight was more assured compared with a heron - always found herons to be jerky and don't reach such heights as this bird did and with seemingly more ease. But my last views of it were of its arse and of it gradually diminishing into a speck over the horizon, leaving me with a head scratching did I or didn't i see?...and why didn't i attempt some record shots?!..ah well....

Edit: reports of an imm.crane at Brading NR today.

I have no pictures of it (yet)
Here's a library pic:

Otherwise pretty quiet about. Grey wagtail. Green sandpiper heard. 12 blackwits.