driving me up the rails!

10/10/09
upton warren
again with the little light remaining i spent it on trying to see the bittern,down at the west hide again as it gives the best scope over the lake and later in the day a better light over the lake.
a single curlew was in the field behind the hide,on entering the hide i was pointed onto a kingfisher on the stick and even though the light was getting bad i tried,

see what i mean dark. as i had heard of a jack snipe showing well from the west hide/concrete hide i decided to take a look.well there wasent one from the west hide so on my lonesome i went into the water rail hide,well no jack snipe here either.a few teal were close in in one of the cutouts in the reeds and then the 'pigs' started squealing in the reeds in front of me,then one appeared,right in front of me,on the near shore,stunningly close but after leaving my scope and camera in with my dad,i was left with a dilemma,run and get my camera or watch it,

i decided to watch it,and only after 5 mins of great views of this usually sculky species i went and collected my scope and camera,spent the next 20 mins in the hide with the water rail still showing but it was too dark and i couldent get a film.. bugger...

while watching the rail i made regular scans for that dam bittern,but yet again no sign,now its driving me up the rails(see what i did there),thats over 2 months of residence and 9 visits to upton and still no sign,surely soon,

3 pochard were asleap in the shoveler flock.

highlighs for the day are:

3 little grebe

375c canadian goose

2 wigeon

3 pochard

4 water rail

2 kingfisher

4 cettis warbler

MB