Sunday 9 January 2011

Budleigh Bittern is Back!

Sunday 9th January 2011
A cracking day today with blue skies and sunshine and the big news of the day was finding a bittern with the Mrs on the patch. Thanks to Doug who mentioned that a farmer near him had given a good description of a bittern flying over fields near Otterton Sewage Works (2Km from the Otter "as the bittern flies") a couple of days ago. So, being the eternal optimists, we headed down to the flooded fields north of White Bridge in the hope that lightning can strick twice!
Sure enough, it can and we had fantastic views in the late afternoon sunshine. Interestingly, it is almost to the exact day that saw the first confirmed sighting of a bittern on the patch in 2010 (11th Jan 2010). Assumed to be a returning bird.

An evening visit to the Commons resulted in just a brief view of a single ringtail Hen Harrier.


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