Old Moor - 4th June

Following my visit to Bolton Ings I progressed onto Old Moor, highlight being 2 sightings of the female Bittern in flight at 15.10 and 15.20 from the Bittern Viewpoint. There are now 6 Avocet chicks present (3 broods of 2) and a further 2 adults dropped in from a great height mid afternoon. A flock of 9 Lapwings also dropped in shortly after the Avocets. The drake Wigeon was still present on the Wader Scrape and a drake Teal was on the field pools. I counted 10 Pochard in total with only 1 female seen, new broods of Mallard included broods of 9 and 5 on the Field Pools and 7 and 5 on the Wader Scrape. Regarding the Bittern Viewpoint this is the first time I have seen it and I was impressed. A couple of notice boards describe the history of the reedbeds and the hopes that Bitterns could be attracted to breed, I am sure the introduction of Eels and Rudd certainly helped. Also an up to date notice board of the days sightings, times, behaviour etc and helpfull staff on hand to give up to the minute news. A Gazeebo and plenty of chairs completed the setup. As mentioned earlier during my couple of hours there the Bittern showed twice and about 25/30 people were rewarded with good views. Everybody was happy with their sightings, the bloke next to me saw the Bittern for the first time and he had been trying for 2 years, he was well chuffed. Another bloke saw it yesterday for the first time (in the reeds on Reedbed 1) and came back today to see it again. Huge thanks go to the RSPB and all their staff for providing the Viewpoint but more importantly providing us all the opportunity to see Bitterns breeding in our part of the country at Old Moor.