Plenty to see - the 'usual suspects' such as mallard, tufted ducks (which are super), great crested grebes, etc., and watched a flock of greylag and canada geese. Spotted a teal, which I don't remember seeing last year, followed by a goosander, a shovellerand a pair of wigeon, which I do remember.
Then went to visit the new hide, the Tower Hide, which has a great view over Clifton Pond. The photo below is taken from the hide. A few minutes after taking this photo, one of the other birdwatchers said 'Bittern! On the ice!' And there it was, standing rather knock-kneed with its beak in the air, looking as if it didn't really know why it was there. Then another bittern appeared, standing on a post at the edge of the reedbed. We had a couple of minutes to watch both before they disappeared back into the reeds. This is a really unusual occurrence: bitterns are rarely seen during the day, even less on a sunny Sunday afternoon when everybody is about. I may never see another one!
Attenborough is a pretty special place and is part of a unique landscape: below is the distinctive steam plume from the rather notorious Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, site of at least one climate change protest recently.
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