BEST BITTERN PICTURES YET

   Recently on one of the warmer days we have had this spring I headed over to RSPB Minsmere and went underneath Island mere hide to get some lower level shots of whatever put in an appearance. After a little while I was joined by local wildlife photographer Jon Evans who is also a warden at the reserve and we didn't have to wait long before a Bittern came into view from the reeds to our left. The bird was very wary and reluctant to come out fully into the open which was possibly due to the amount of noise coming from the hide above us where the people seemed oblivious to the Bittern and more concerned about laughing and joking and dragging the furniture around.

   Eventually they went quiet when they realised that a Bittern was outside and the bird began to come out onto the cut area of reeds and we could see that it was a female. Bitterns are not easy to sex especially from a distance but in general the males tend to have a bluish colouration to the cheek area and the females have a more yellowish colour to the base of the bill and around the eyes. All of a sudden another Bittern appeared from the reeds about 10 yards from the first and a closer examination revealed this too to be a female but this bird seemed much more confident and immediately walked out into the open which resulted in the first bird taking off and flying across the mere out of sight.

   The Bittern walked across the front of the hide only about 20 feet from Jon and myself who were both snapping away like crazy as it gave fantastically good views. I ended up taking about 800 shots and Jon nearly 1000 but I still had space on the card for a few shots of a Little Egret that had landed in the shallow water behind us while we were preoccupied with the Bittern. By far and away my best encounter with these rare and elusive birds, now I just have to get some similar quality shots of a male!