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Sharing your boating thoughts and opinions
A bittern on the Broads
My sister and I took a short break on the Norfolk Broads recently. After an absence of more than 10 years, it was a delight to revisit this wonderful waterland. Our boat was one of those all-on-one-level forward drive types which are notoriously difficult to moor stern-to because the helmsman cannot see astern, but we managed and I have to say that the general standard of boathandling I saw was pretty good, bearing in mind that many hirers are first timers or, like us, returning after long years absence.
But to the point: We spent the evening of 10 May at the Horning Ferry Inn moorings where we heard a bittern booming from a reedbed across the river behind the riverbank trees. He boomed every five or 10 minutes from late afternoon, all evening and all night until about 0400 when he went to bed just as the local cuckoo got up and was keen to tell us all about it.
The bittern began each time with awas a privilege to hear this super rare bird that was almost absent from the broads for many years; a sound I never thought I’d hear in my lifetime, outside of the tellybox.
