It was hard to believe. We were driving slowly on a very quiet road in Crete close to a large reservoir. We saw this little bittern as we approached and thought it was certain to fly off. No sign of movement. We got very close: within a few metres. The car window was lowered and this photo was taken. The bird cocked its head and clearly saw us. It was pristine with no sign of injury. After watching for a while we drove on very, very slowly around the bird. It stood still and watched us, only moving its head as we did so. We could see in the rear-view mirror that it still hadn't moved.