Bittern at Budworth Mere : 30th December 2014

Bittern at Budworth Mere : 30th December 2014

After reading reports of a Bittern in the reed bed at Budworth Mere for a couple of days, I thought that this could be a great chance to end the birding year (most likely) if I could manage to coincide with this bird. A group of us drove over there and went to the hide overlooking the reed bed getting there around 10 am. No Bittern was to be seen !

On the water there were lots of Mallards and on the feeders there were plenty of Tits and Nuthatches – and even a Great Spotted Woodpecker. Under the feeders lurked Robins, Dunnocks and Moorhens. We stayed and scanned the reed bed for quite some time. We had hoped that the freezing temperatures would have forced any Bitterns or Water Rails out of the reeds and into the open and the cold had certainly frozen a lot of the water but there were still margins that were thawed. The general reed bed seemed somewhat flattened and we could see lots of small birds flitting about but only a Grey Heron stood out.

As we walked along the side of the mere we saw a few more water birds including Shoveler, Teal, Pochard and Tufted Duck. The usual ranks of Cormorants and Black-headed Gulls decorated the posts int he water and a largish flock of Canada Geese were on the sloping pasture land on the far side.

Up at the feeding stations there were three Jays all feeding of the nuts and there were the usual tits and Robins and Dunnocks. As we walked back around the woods some of us caught sight of a Buzzard flying through the woods but no winter thrushes as I had hoped.

We decided that we needed one last go at trying for the Bittern and this time we got lucky. Rather than in the denser part of the reed bed, the Bittern was amongst the narrow band of reeds at the right hand side of the reed bed as you look at it from the hide. At that point it looks as if the reed is only about thirty feet or so deep, from the waters edge to the trees; the Bittern was equidistant from both and preoccupied with preening only occasionally stopping to pick up a morsel of food that had crossed its line of sight. We watched the bird for about twenty minutes.

During 2014 we had looked for a Bittern at Budworth Mere (on the 18th February) but not seen it. Later in the year we missed a Bittern by minutes at Leighton Moss (on the 14th of October)  and we had heard but not seen Bitterns at Shapwick Heath and Ham Wall (on the 25th and 27th of April) so this turned out to be our first Bittern sighting of the year – and with only a couple of days left of 2014 ! Brilliant.

So although we didn’t see a massive range of birds and mostly nothing very special we had a lovely brisk winter walk and crowned it off with great views of a Bittern. Happy Christmas indeed.

Bird Sightings : Budworth Mere / Marbury Park