Another 'first' Ticked Off!

[stumpy]

After 40-odd years of hiring and 5 years of ownership it finally happened on Tuesday evening! Sitting on the stern having a last smoke watching the sunset at Broadsedge we heard a bittern calling! He was off over towards Hunsett Mill/Dilham and boomed away for a good half hour.Not seen one yet but we live in hope.

[Polly]

 

Good news Stumpy! 

We moored at Ranworth for a decade, it was not unusual to hear them booming across the marshes there. I had no idea the sound was rare until JM got so excited hearing one on the 3RR. 

 

[Vaughan]

To see one, it will probably be flying, especially in early morning. They fly rather like a heron, but with a noticeably short neck. Later in the spring you might see young ones, which are less timid, if you wait quietly, before dawn, beside a drainage dyke on the marshes. But if you so much as blink an eye, they will fly off.

I heard one booming on Wroxham Broad in the dawn, but that was in the 50's!

[Guest]

Yes, very rare to hear them booming.

I've been lucky enough to  live here for 15 years, and I've only heard them twice.

Quite an unreal sound, like a giant blowing across the top of a milk bottle, but it carries a very long distance in the quiet of the evening.

There's a very good recording of one in the Wildlife Trust visitor centre at Ranworth Broad.  One of the exhibits has a push button, and it sounds exactly like the real thing.

 

[Polly]

I think the lower reaches of the Ant and the marshes around Ranworth must be good terrain for bitterns. We saw one in each of these. places and Griff also saw one on the Bure near to where we did.  Never expected to see even one!

[vanessan]

Heard them last year while moored in Fleet Dyke then again while walking down the road from the moorings opposite the Ferry Inn at Horning. That area is clearly good for the Bittern. Shame we won't be able to walk along that road from those moorings again!

[marshman]

This time of the year its not that uncommon to hear bitterns booming - the trouble is some people find it hard to "hear " them and at the same time they tend to boom when we are still abed!  There is no doubt that there are a few more around these days _ in fact the last couple of years the RSPB have no longer had people out listening. Equally there is a lot of other "noise" around like diesels and certainly whilst going along, you have to be pretty close to hear the boom over the engine!

Fleet Dyke and the marshes to the west towards Ranworth is a good spot to hear them and up the Ant valley before How Hill, Buttle Marsh and around Reedham Water, Further up Sharp Street and onto Barton and then the Ant up to Wayford and Sutton Broad are also good areas up north. And almost anywhere above Martham - towards Somerton and on Heigham, Horsey and Hickling too  Down South Strumpshaw Fen is also a favoured spot as well as the reed fringes and beds from Somerleyton down to Oulton,

An eerily exciting sound as is a sighting - thats a bit harder generally.

[Vaughan]

Sorry these are taken from far away, but that's not surprising. You only get a moment to get the camera focused.

I am cheating a bit here, as these were taken in the Petit Camargue, in South France, which is very much like the northern Broads.

But they are same bitterns in the same environment. The very large areas of reed beds are harvested in rotation, every 3 years, which leaves plenty of room for the bittern to breed.

It is a wonderful place for them to thrive and you can hear them all day long at this time of year.

By the way, the Camargue reed is reckoned to be second only to the Norfolk reed, for the thatching of houses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[marshman]

Cannot be the same bitterns Vaughan - Norfolk bitterns seem to be a bit lazier as i don't think i have ever seen one as high as that! Normally they seem to be about a foot or so above the reedbeds and as soon as they see you watching them, down they go! The only time I have ever seen them here for more than a few seconds is if you catch them crossing open water - once saw one fly over Barton, and another time it jumped up out of the reeds on the Waveney and flew up river in front of the boat - not especially attractive up the chuff!!

[BroadAmbition]

Saw my first one March this year, flee across 'B.A's bow from ome bank to t'other, low flight. Only took me 55+ years but worth the wait

Griff

[LizG]

Three rivers guard ship in the middle of the night is a good time to hear them. Missed out at Hickling in 2011 but it was blowing a gale. 

[andy]

I heard one last year at how hill

[Lastdraft]

A rare sight indeed, seen plenty of heterosexual Herons, a few *****  Quails, even the odd ***** Lapwing, but a bi tern ? 

[Guest]

Seen 2 last week flying over barton broad - or maybe the same one twice - on different days!