There were a lot of happy visitors around at the weekend as our booming bittern put on quite a performance. He was even seen briefly, as was another bird - presumably a female.
Pairs of garganey were seen both on the ARC pit and on Denge Marsh and the long-tailed duck was also seen at ARC.
There was a good variety of waders around, although not in high numbers. Two little ringed plovers could be seen well from Firth hide, four bar-tailed godwits were seen from the Visitor Centre, three snipe were tucked up in the vegetation on New Excavations and a ruff was on Denge Marsh. The first green sandpiper of the spring flew over Boulderwall Farm early on Saturday morning and eight whimbrel were in the field to the right of the entrance track. Late on Sunday afternoon a little stint was found at the ARC site.
There was some excitement on Sunday afternoon as an osprey flew north over the Water Tower. Sadly it appeared as little more than a dot when viewed from the main car park but this was more than compensated for by the two spoonbills that dropped into Burrowes pit a little while later.
Two little gulls, a few common terns and two pied flycatchers were also of note.