Bittern roosting in a tree, well away from the fox that was prowling around!I was getting ready to go to Canons this morning when my dad said 'Are you ready to go for the Eagle then?', I was confused and explained that I was planning on doing my patch but he kindly offered to take me for another attempt for the White-tailed Eagle in Hampshire as long as we were back by midday, I agreed. To get to it, we didn't see the bird, again.
I met Roy at Canons and I was very pleased with his front cover painting for the bird report that he brought along. He is a very talented artist! Just need to gather and confirm a couple of articles, finish off the species accounts and it will be ready for the print run. We didn't see much, one of the two currently residing Common Buzzards was on show.
I had more luck locally than with twitching. My parents then picked me up and we headed to Godstone. I found Bay Pond and teamed up with Neil Randon and another friendly bloke. After quite a bit of waiting, I walked up to the end of the path to get another angle, looked back to the other end and saw the Bittern perched in vegetation directly opposite Neil and our friend, I ran back and we all enjoyed absolutely epic views of the bird, my best ever. I was just about to snap it when it took off and settled in a slightly more distant tree, still top views though - see record shot (at this point it was getting pretty dark). Also at Godstone were a Kingfisher, a Great Crested Grebe, a pair of Gadwall, a Mistle Thrush and a couple of Egyptian Geese. Satisfied, I went and had dinner with my parents in the Beefeater round the corner, which was very nice. Past midday it wasn't a bad day.
