No North Bucks Bittern

I met up briefly with Rob Norris this afternoon to check the reedbeds along the west side of the north lake at Willen. By 1620 we had not seen any Bitterns but did notch up – 3 Little Grebe, 3 drake Goosander roosting on the ice, 2 Greater Black Backed Gulls, 1 female Goldeneye amongst good numbers of wildfowl. A Common Redshank flew in and landed on the ice and walked amongst the geese and ducks standing on the ice. Rob earlier had at least 2 Water Rails near the sluice (in the North West corner) and 1 male Reed Bunting. Finally we had amazing views of a Water Rail walking on the ice near the duck feeding/fishing platform eating crumbs of bread put down by a family, obviously the bird was very hungry and not bothered by us stood nearby. Lastly, travelling East along the H6 at 16:40 I again spotted the Loughton Starling flock displaying over the Equestrian Centre, estimate 1 to 2000? birds at least (Paul Moon)