Alternative suggestion. A barbecue with loads of steak. It would solve the cow problem in an instant!
Interesting that there were that many bitterns, egrets etc to be had in those days...
Speaking as a non-veggie, malt drinking oaf who likes a bottle or 2 of chateauneuf du pape with crispy duck or fillet. Bring it on. If you don't like I've yet to try long pig cooked or raw!
Brilliant detective work Paul. It's amazing that such detail survives from over 560 years ago and also incredible to have a glimpse of the fauna from that period. So, bitterns were relatively plentiful back then but also were considered 'fit' food for a King and his guests. Just out of interest, would 72 bitterns be similar to the whole of the current UK population today?
Hi Andrew
Bittern was a relatively common banquet feature given that there was so much of the UK that was marsh or wetland and a Bittern has more meat than your average chicken... We still had Bittern breeding in the South Yorkshire area probably until around the 1700's - references get sketchy once royalty stopped eating them! Massive engineering undertakings like the draining of the fens and other large scale draining of land for agriculture was catastrophic for birds like the Bittern. It went extinct in the late 1800's before returning to the Norfolk Broads area in, I believe, 1911. They then increased to the 1950's before a further decline to just 11 males in the 1990's. Numbers are now over the 100 mark with around 130 'booming' males (the method of census is to count calling males who give a booming call so the population overall will be much bigger). Hope that helps. Matthew
Hi Matthew,
That's an incredible bittern-related knowledge you have there! I must admit, though I had considered industrialisation, I hadn't immediately thought of the draining of the fens in relation to this point - and to my shame, being from there and all. I love the idea that historical references are thin on the ground once royals dropped them from their menus. Of course, that might have just been fashion: the dish may have fallen out of favour much like jellied eels today. Whatever the reason, it seems fair that we can say that, thanks to Paul's posting, Richard III (and guests) ate their way through a substantial part of the modern population of bitterns in one sitting! Also, the fact that the birds have increased from 11 to 130 males in twenty odd years seems pretty encouraging. Not a cue for complacency, but the species obviously has a capacity to be quite successful.
The successful and gradual return of the wonderful bittern, is of course a credit to the coordinated hard work of conservation organisations, led by the RSPB, restoring reedbed habitat across the country in a corridor effect. That has only been possible because of the ongoing support of the fantastic members who fund all that hard work!
Its nice to have a success story to cheer us up in an era of wildlife declines. At the risk of having a cheesy moment - we can do amazing things when we all work together for nature. Go us!! :)
Thats a great insight from Matthew although I'm not sure it's currently possible for a species to go extinct and then come back :)
You should see the exhibits, sorry wildlife we have at Old Moor now. Just keep your fingers crossed that we don't have any powercuts otherwise the T-Rex will be straight down Swinton high street and we'll be connecting people with nature in a very literal way...
On a serious point, you're right. We lost them as a breeding species in the UK.
It's an interesting balance and contrast between the past draining of land for the benefit of people (for living / farming) and the current creation of reedbeds for bitterns (for living / hunting).