I mean...seriously...

Life is full of little pleasures; hitting the snooze button on your alarm, taking off wet socks, somebody saying yes, without even asking what it was you wanted, a slice of Battenburg with a strong cup of brown joy to name but a few. Today, I not only enjoyed all the above, but metaphorically killed my second bird. Oh yes.

I'd decided to bookend the day (see Answer: dark-bellied) and come 4 o'clock I was ready to have another crack at Bittern. Trouble was, it was raining and whilst I'm not averse to a bit-o-damp, it doesn't exactly help the chances of seeing a Botaurus. Nonetheless, I made some make-shift waterproof trousers out of black bin bags, packed the obligatory optics 'n' vittles and set off. Figured if it didn't ease off I could easily duck into the east hide at Pumphouse Pool and check through the gulls. It didn't ease off, so I ducked...into...the east... yeah... where there was one of these (first of the year)...

Not only was there a Little Grebe, but there was also 2 Great Crested Grebes (seems like they're setting up shop already)... and... 6 Mallard, 1 Shoveler, 1 Pochard, 18 Tufted Duck, 3 Teal, 2 Gadwall, 2 Moorhen, 57 Coot and a Kingfisher.

On the gull front there was; c430 Black-headed Gulls, 244 Herring Gulls, 26 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 6 Common Gulls and an adult Yellow-legged Gull. No Glaucous. No Iceland. No Med.

Anyway the rain kinda eased off a bit and so I figured I'd go for it. Why not. Just got to the end of the track from Pumphouse when I spotted a fellow birder heading to the Eastern Reedbed. Stopped the car, gave him a lift...chap by the name of John... and we briefly chatted about birding this and that, including my second bird on the stone list... Bittern. If there's one bird I spend more patch time looking for than any other, it's Bittern. Although there are certain conditions that make it more likely to see one (ice being the biggest), there's no guaranteed time of day. I have had most luck at dawn and dusk, but I've also had waaay more visits when I haven't seen a Bittern, than visits when I have... and that's when I'm looking for the bloody things. They're just SO damn unpredictable that it more or less boils down to...

...or without him!

It was with no...

...therefore, that we sauntered up to the hide that overlooks the Eastern Reedbed and Mill Brook Pool.

Well I was flabbergasted... no... actually I was flabberESTgasted. There, right in front of the bloody hide...out in the open...was the Bittern! I mean...seriously... it just stretched its head up to see what all the commotion was before flying lazily off and settled in the reeds in front of two small alders / willows. In diagrammatic form...it went from A...to B thus...

Closest up I've ever seen one and certainly the quickest Bittern tick I've had in my life and am ever likely to get again I suspect...anywhere. Amazing.

SO, question: Do I set the alarm to head out for first light tomorrow...given it's a Saturday... or hit the snooze button?

Hmmmm...