I had a slightly bizarre encounter with one of our wintering Bitterns yesterday afternoon. One of the great things about working at Radipole is having to walk through the reserve every time I need to get to the office. This enables me to sneak in a bit of extra birdwatching and in the past its lead to encounters with Great White Egrets, Glossy Ibis and Yellow-browed Warblers. A very strange sound caused me to look round on yesterday's commute and lead to the discovery of a Bittern flying along side me. Nice in itself but the fact it was calling made the meeting much more interesting.
Bitterns are famous for their booming call which is made early spring by males to attract a female. Sadly this sound has yet to become a familiar one in Weymouth but I’m sure things will change in the future. The sound I heard yesterday was a weird grunt rather than a boom which it made every few seconds whilst flying over the reeds. I’ve heard this once before at a lake in South Wales but I’ve got no idea why it was making this noise. I can only speculate that it was either annoyed by something and was just muttering to itself or it was telling me to blog as we’ve not posted for a week or two. If the latter I’d better also update you the recent sightings in Weymouth. The Bearded tits at the North hide are still putting on daily performances; up to 15 have been seen in the last few days. Marsh Harriers are still putting in appearances; I believe up to three birds have been seen at both Radipole and Lodmoor. Perhaps the most significant sighting was of two Otters which for the observer was a real delight as it was her first ever sighting of these elusive critters. She saw them last week but there are still signs such as spraint (poo!) and footprints appearing regularly.
Nice capture.