Monday 18 June 2018

Bittern Bonanza at Lakenheath Fen

7th June 2018

We had such a good time with the Bitterns at Lakenheath Fen, so time for a second visit to try for some more photos, but first a quick visit to Lackford Lakes.

It had been hoped that there would be a sprinkling of warblers hopping around in the bushes, but only a single male Blackcap put in an appearance and therefore we had to made do with a lone Bee Orchid in front of the old Bernard's Hide site and a female Emperor Dragonfly ovipositing.








Now on to Lakenheath and wait for the Bitterns to perform. Fairly quiet for a while with only a Buzzard to keep us company.







  
But then the first flights of the day, although not all in photographic range.








At that point my son Stuart spotted with his naked eye a Bittern climbing up the reeds. Although not completely visible it did provide some shots.............




...................and even preened for the camera. The main advantage of it clinging on to reeds is that it will eventually fly, so plenty of time to pre-focus and test all the settings.








And then it launched itself into the air allowing a superb sequence of shots to be taken of this most amazing bird.














I suspect that Lakenheath Fen is now one of the top sites in the UK for seeing and photographing Bitterns, with 8 booming males present in 2017, and the development of the site from a carrot field in 1995 to today's fen habitat is an amazing achievement.

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