Dropped in to the lake on the way home to see if anything had appeared. The lake held two pairs of Great-crested Grebes and three Tufted Ducks. Not much else to be seen so departed.
In the parking area I bumped into Dick, the bailiff, who told me that two anglers had flushed a Bittern at the weekend, so I decided to go home and get my scope.
On my return I went to the southern end of the lake to scan the reed beds but was unable to find anything so thought I'd stay until it got dark. As the light began to fade two pairs of Mandarins came in to roost and just when I had given up a noise to my right had me turning round to see the Bittern(77) fly from a small patch of reeds and drop into the reeds in the south east corner.Brilliant!!!I've seen a few at Furnace in previous years but these days they don't turn up as regularly as they used to.