Keith and I headed off for the London Wetland Centre last week in search of that elusive London winter visitor, the Bittern. The is a member of the heron family but unlike its relatives, it is camouflaged and spends its day hiding in reed beds.
It was a bright but cold autumnal day and on arrival at the centre in West London, we fortified ourselves with a hot drink, before setting out on the northern side of the the reserve. Our first stop was Headly Hide, from where we have had our best views of Bittern in the past, but learnt that one had been showing well on the reservoir lake at the far end of the reserve. So we headed on down to Wildside Hide which overlooks the lake armed with information about where it had been seen. But we had no luck.
After lunch, we moved over to the southern side of the reserve visiting Dulverton Hide, from where a Bittern had been seen, whilst we were on the north side, and Peacock Tower, but again we had no luck.
We had also hoped for some interesting fungi on our walk but there were very few to be seen
The usual resident birds were seen and, without seeing any standout birds, we saw about 35 species.
We also had time to look at some of the birds in the wildfowl collection too.
So we were unsuccessful in our search for Bittern this time, although at least 2 birds were seen whilst we were on the reserve. It is just a case of being in the right place at the right time. So as the afternoon drew on there was just time for another hot drink before setting out for home.
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