Now more than ever we need wide-open spaces to let wildlife recover | Patrick Barkham

The return of the bittern and common crane to the Norfolk Broads gives reason for optimismIn the autumn stillness, I didn’t immediately notice the large brown bird flying low over a golden-brown expanse of reeds at Hickling Broad, Norfolk. It was a bittern, a famously elusive creature that became extinct in Britain as a breeding bird 150 years ago.The bittern is thriving again, after beginning its comeback in 1911 at Hickling, the largest of the lakes created by medieval peat-diggers, whic