Lunchtime today and I had half an hour in the hide at Cresswell. On arrival I was met with the expected 'you should have been here 5 minutes ago'...typical. The Bittern had flown into the reeds to the right of the hide. Oh well I thought, at least I know where it is and hunkered down to wait.
On the half iced pond, 170 odd Teal looked nice accomapnied by a pair of Red breasted Mergansers and a scattering of Wigeon...
Sure enough after about 15 minutes of surreal chat from a family in the hide ( 'what do they make birds from? Nowadays people do all sorts in test tubes' says the son, while mum responds, 'Mad scientists you mean', 'Yeah' says the lad... I kid you not) the Bittern flew low over the reed tops and pitched in in front of the east reeds, only long enough to scope before walking, ghost-like, into the cover as if it had never been there.
I managed to get the teenage lad onto it in my scope before he came out with another gem or two forcing me to leave in case I turned serial killer....
it's a hide thing - they attract them for some reason...You never get weirdo's like that 'out in the field'..... well you do at Druridge but they're always a higher calibre of weirdo down there!
ReplyDeleteNice one Stewart and a great sketch too!
ReplyDeleteOut of the mouths of babes Stewart, I too have heard some odd things in hides in my time, mostly from me.
ReplyDeleteOnce Bittern, twice shied, eh!!
well done stew i was up sunday i got frost bittern but no bittern
ReplyDeletewill try again thats another one i need ps i always new u were good with kids
nice sketch stew reeds are a bit small though
Nice one Stewart. I spent a miserable hour or so there on Monday when it was raining... alot. Not a sniff - but water rail and jack snipe were compensatory.
ReplyDeleteWe miss Davey Bruce for in-hide entertainment. He would have wedged that poor lad in one of the hide flaps!
ReplyDeleteHi there, have been reading your blogs for about 2 weeks now and really enjoy them.
ReplyDeletewas at cresswell on uesday morning and got 2 bitterns flying infront of the hide about 10 mins or so apart, they flew into the right of the hide in the reeds, is there 3 confirmed bitterns there now?
Hello all, thaks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteChris - That drawing is 10 years old now. The bird in question was in cut down reed...
Nigel - That made me laugh. I hadn't thought about Davey, but oh yes the lad would have found walking difficult and his mother would need new bins!
Hello Gary, I'm pleased you like it. According to the crack there are 'possibly' 3 Bitterns, but no one has seen 3 in the air together. They re quite mobile and visit the reed bed over west of the pond out of sight of the hide. I think the bird at Chev the other day could have been one of the Cresswell birds but there is so much reed around these days there could easily be 3 or more birds.
10 years old or not it's still a good un
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