Once bittern, pretty shy...

Living where we do I spend most of the time having to "go" for birds. Norfolk, Kent, Dorset, Sussex, Rutland and the rest are all equidistant from us. It can be a boon or a curse: you have to drive to get anything but its better than, say, going from Dorset to Norfolk for a twitch. So, when a good bird crops up close to home it is a bonus. It doesn't happen often though. Little bittern a few years ago was the best and then a selection of nice birds at Staines come to mind.
On Friday, I was just finishing cutting the lawn when I checked my phone on the off chance. Nothing on Birdguides or RBA but there was a couple of Facebook notifications. The most interesting was from Keith Pursall, chairman of my local reserve at Maple Lodge. "Geoff Lapworth has just seen a bittern from Teal Hide". Not a rare bird if you are in Norfolk but round here it certainly gets the pulse stepping up a gear! I rapidly finished the last two stripes on the lawn, gathered up my gear and dashed off. It was nice change to do a 5 minute drive to a twitch.
When I got there it was over an hour since Geoff had seen the bird. I got to the hide quickly and he was still there. The bittern had only showed briefly, walking out of the scrape and into the reedbed.. He had few photos he'd managed to grab through the window before it disappeared. Nothing could be seen of it now though.
I set myself up, camera trained on the reeds and waited. A few people came and went but eventually it was just myself and Anna Marrett left in the hide. A couple of green sandpipers kept us amused but otherwise it was very quiet. I kept scanning the reeds and the muddy margins, hoping it would come out and start feeding. We discussed where it might have gone to and was it worth checking the other hides. With water levels low there were not too many areas for it to feed in, so I though we were in there best place. Anna was about to go and check elsewhere when she gave it a last scan. "It's there, in a bush" or words to that effect got me out of my reverie into which I had drifted. She got me onto an area at the back of the scrape where there were a couple of small bushes or trees.

It took a bit of time but finally we both got onto the area half way up the bush where you could see a golden-brown patch. It was only with a 'scope or large lens view though that you could see what it was - the bittern sitting happily on a branch. How long it had been there we don't know, and how Anna saw it I have no idea. It was really hard to get good views.

As the wind blew it sometimes showed a bit better as branches moved out of the way.

I stayed for an hour and half watching it as the local crowd started to arrive on the news of it reappearing. It twitched a bit, preened but generally just sat there. Often it looked up in the very bittern-like way showing its stripy throat very well.

I had to go to a concert that night so I eventually left it. I was torn as I presumed it would soon come out of its tree and have a feed along the margins. Apparently it didn't though. It was still there at 7, at least 6 hours in the tree. The following day it had gone. A one day wonder but a really good bird for the reserve. Very happy I had the opportunity to go for it!