Beautiful bittern is rare giant
AS winter approaches we generally hear lots about rare birds being spotted around the region.
The thing about rare birds is that sometimes they don’t look very exciting or they look similar to varieties that are not so rare.
This is the great thing about the bittern, it’s rare and it’s huge. When birders flock to see a bittern they are just as excited as your average not-so-interested-insmall-brown-birds member of the public.
Bitterns are brown birds with beige and black streaks, a camouflage which helps them hide in reed beds. They stand motionless in the reeds for minutes on end. They can grow up to 3ft tall and have wingspans more than four feet across, but they still stay hidden except to trained eyes of the birding community.
When you hear of a bittern on a nature reserve, make friends with a birder who will let you get a close-up look of this shy bird through his or her scope. You will delight birders by keeping quiet in bird hides, respecting their space and conversations and then leaping in for your opportunity when they appear to be resting their eye from bittern observation.
When bitterns are around, bird hides tend to be pretty full but at least it will be warm on a cold winter’s afternoon, if everyone squeezes together.
Bitterns are one of the UK’s most rare and threatened birds - the reed beds they depend on have disappeared through pollution, bad agricultural practices and changes to coastal sites as sea levels rise. RSPB Leighton Moss is one of the only areas they have bred in the north west over the past few decades. However, there was a sighting of a pair and a young bird at Wigan Flashes in recent years.
The Wildlife Trust has boosted the size of its reed beds at Wigan Flashes, Brockholes in Preston, Mere Sands Wood in West Lancashire and Lunt Meadows in Merseyside.
Hopefully, these nature reserves will not only provide reed beds for breeding bittern but also a network of sites for bittern to widen their territories.
Of course, bittern are famous for booming - a mating call, between January and April. It’s an eerie sound when you are alone in a nature reserve close to tall reeds.
So look at your local birders’ page on the internet and check out the rarities in your region this winter.
The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. To become a member, go to the website at www. lancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324129.