By the time I was motivated to go outside, the big bird was trying to land and I hate to bother it. I think maybe it is a bittern rather than a great blue heron, but why would either stay here? The gulf is just down the road a few hundred miles and the pond doesn't have the shallow shoreline that is their normal lunchroom. Although this bird looks intelligent as he is flying away, maybe he just isn't. There must be functional ability levels even among birds, so out of all the large wading birds that live in this region, there will be a few who would fly over this pond and see it as being the best life has to offer. This could be one.