I’d say “Don’t you dare laugh” but you will any way...
We have cranes and herons galore, here, which is kinda weird because we’re in the mountains.
Ordinarily, they hang around my dad’s ponds up on the mountain.
One evening, at dusk, hubby and I were coming up the lane and I happened to glance over at my illuminated backyard fish pond and I -swore- that there was an “alien gray” standing there!
Turned out to be a crane, on one leg, staring intently downwards, waiting for one of my poor, stupid Koi or Comets to rise trusting and oblivious to the surface.
The very next day, I had one of those “artificial alligators” floating in the pond and it never came back.
That’s hysterical! I don’t know where you live, but all we ever saw in East TX was Cattle Egrets. We had a nice koi pond (19 ft, waterfall—hubby did a beautiful job) with 4 large koi. I worried about birds, some people in the area had trouble with them, but I never saw anything that was big enough to get them. Out here, I suspect they would disappear right away, so we don’t have a pond. I miss it!