AS conservationists celebrate a record-breaking year for the bittern, which was previously threatened with extinction in the UK, we take a look back at its only known recent sighting at a Herefordshire nature reserve.
There were 283 booming males recorded in the latest results from the RSPB and Natural England, a 20 per cent increase from the previous survey and the biggest jump since monitoring began in 1990.
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A bittern was spotted at Bodenham Lake Nature Reserve in 2023, with a spokesperson saying on Facebook at the time: “There was a rare sighting of a bittern at Bodenham Lake on July 24, 2023, the first known record of this secretive bird at the reserve. Bitterns (botaurus stellaris) are found in wetlands with large reedbeds, their pale, buffy-brown plumage makes them well camouflaged as they move silently at the water’s edge, looking for fish.
“This bittern is likely to be passing through though it may stick around for a while resting and feeding by the lakeside. The hides will likely provide the best chance of a sighting.
“A member of the heron family, the males make a distinctive far-reaching booming sound in the spring, so loud that it’s comparable to standing 25 metres from a jet taking off!
“Once extinct in the UK, the bird is slowly making a came back – in 1997 there were only tens of the birds remaining. Through concerted conservation efforts there are now just around 200 breeding pairs in the UK. As the reedbeds planted when the lake was reprofiled in 2018 to 2019 continue to get established, it’s hoped booming bitterns will be heard in Herefordshire again.”
The RSPB says: “Bitterns have a checkered history in the UK. Persecution and habitat loss drove the birds to extinction by the late nineteenth century. They returned to Norfolk in 1900 but suffered another drop in numbers to just 11 remaining booming males left by 1997.”