As I walked across to Ness Hide at Far Ings I could hear the bittern booming so, full of anticipation, I joined the other birders in the hide. The bittern continued to boom all morning but absolutely refused to show. The light was reasonable, however, and it was good to relax in the hide and watch nature go about its business. The most obvious birds were the resident greylag geese, some complete with broods of goslings. As usual, cetti's warblers were vocal. Not so many years ago it would have been one bird, now they are plentiful on the reserve. As well as these two birds we heard a water rail squealing in the the reeds and a distant sedge warbler singing its jerky, scratchy song. A marsh harrier briefly appeared and gave a distant fly past and we had a brief sighting of common tern.
Once Nigel had joined me we set off for a circuit of the reserve calling in at the other hides. We were hoping for views of great crested grebes with their striped chicks on Target Lake but, although we had good views of the adults, the chicks must have been tucked away in the reeds into which the adults soon disappeared. Moving on to the Scrape Hide, we enjoyed excellent views of male and female marsh harrier displaying. In my photograph the male is carrying food so perhaps we missed a food pass. Both birds dropped down into the reeds, perhaps onto the nest.
Completing our circuit of the reserve rewarded us with blackcap, more cetti's, dunnock, reed bunting and my first willow warbler of the year. Once back at the car it was time for soup and a roll in The Ropewalk cafe.
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