Seymour Birdies Diary: The History of the Amwell Bittern

22nd August 2022

A Bittern was found by a roadside pond near Willian, Letchworth on Thursday 15th September 2016 and was taken to Caroline Huxtable at Wildlife Welfare based in Stevenage. The Bittern, a juvenile female, was checked over and X-rayed by the vet and was considered to be bruised but unharmed and on the 18th September was taken to Rye Meads where it was ringed (ring no. 1500291) on the left leg and released.

Thanks to a photo of the ring taken by Jay Ward it is known that she spent the whole of the 2016/17 winter at Rye Meads. However she did not stay at Rye Meads for the summer, but intriguinglya left-leg ringed Bittern was photographed by Marcus Nash at RSPB Lakenheath in the summer of 2017. Almost certainly she was back in the Lea Valley near Rye Meads in the 2017/18 winter where a left-leg ringed Bittern was once again seen and photographed before the trail led once more to Lakenheath.

On the 7th May 2018 a left-leg ringed Bittern was photographed by Dawn Balmer from the Mere Hide at Lakenheath and again on the 20th May by David Gowing. One of the images was studied by the BTO and were able to read part of the unique combination of the ring and confirm that it was the Rye Meads bird.

The bird now over-winters at Amwell normally arriving in late July, but can often go missing for a period, presumably due to remaining hidden in the reed bed or spending some time further down the valley.

On the 22nd August I visited Amwell to see if the Bittern was on show at the Bittern View-point over-looking the Bittern Pool, but no sign. I then wandered up the boardwalk towards the White Hide and saw the Bittern on the far side of the pool. It was about 50 yards to the left of the view-point but not visible from there.

I managed to find a little tunnel through the reeds and took the following shots. The plumage of the Bittern provides superb camouflage when the bird is in last year's Phragmites, but not so good in fresh Greater Pond Sedge.