Bittern booming at RSPB Leighton Moss

Bittern booming at RSPB Leighton Moss
12/04/2010 18:50:51

April 2010. Staff and visitors at RSPB Leighton Moss nature reserve in Silverdale were cracking open the champagne when they at long last heard the ‘booming' of a bittern from the reeds. This very rare and much loved bird normally ‘booms' to seduce the females on or around Valentine's Day, but this year he lost his romantic streak and boomed much later in the year.

David Mower, the reserve's warden said "We've been eagerly anticipating this fantastic news and are all extremely thrilled! It's been a huge relief to know that there's still a booming male bittern here despite the worst winter weather for many years. The first calls are a bit like a grunt as the birds ‘tune' up, but then build to an impressive ‘booming' call that sounds a bit like a foghorn and can be heard for several kilometers.

David continues, "With a lot of bitterns being seen on the reserve over the winter, we're keeping our fingers crossed that this will be a good year for breeding bitterns."

Extensive reedbedsLeighton Moss is the only place in the north-west where bitterns are known to breed and extensive work to restore and create reedbeds has been carried out in recent years to improve the conditions for these elusive birds which has been part-funded by the EU-LIFE bittern programme and DEFRA.

Extinct in Britain in early 20th Century, the smartly camouflaged brown ‘heron-like' bittern was actually extinct in Britain in the early 20th Century due to the extensive drainage of wetlands. Thanks to the work of the RSPB and other conservation organisations it's been making a slow comeback in recent years. The numbers of booming males in the UK have increased from a worryingly low 11 in 1997 to a record 82 last year - the best number for over 120 years