Once Bittern
Life's not fair! Having recovered from triple ebola (Grade A, super deadly) - see last post for gory details, I now appear to have contracted triple man flu (Grade A etc.)

How I managed to find someone with such a virulent strain and get close enough to catch the bug was initially a mystery as all my friends have appeared healthy enough over the last week or so (well no worse than normal) and past experience shows that I normal get these things after being shut in a crowded room with a bunch of strangers (eg trains, planes, automobiles, pubs, etc).

Then it occurred to me - I had been shut in a small room with lots of strangers - yes the near hide down at the reserve, had been packed to the rafters last Friday with hundreds (poetic license) of hopeful Bittern spotters. It's amazing how effective the jungle drums are when it comes to beating (should it be booming in this case?) out the news of a rare arrival on a local site.

Like Walt Disney's fateful Lemmings, they had been drawn to the waters edge, to hopefully encounter the mysterious bird (does this make them Bittern Lemmings?). Sadly anyway Botaurus stellaris had disappeared as stealthily as he had arrived and apart from a couple of lucky souls who had seen it earlier in the week, we were all disappointed.















A beautiful frosty morning last week at HESC

In the absence of anything more interesting to report and sadly no new photo opportunities this week - although the wildfowl are certainly starting to get some cracking colours as we approach the breeding time (including a male Goldeneye seen at HESC on monday) - I will once again shuffle off to the sick settee - at least I can watch the cricket - cough, splutter, groan.