Booming year for Britain's loudest bird

Staff Reporter

16th September 2019

Bitterns back from the brink of extinction as 102 male bitterns recorded on RSPB reserves for the first time.

Britain’s loudest bird has enjoyed its best year since records began, according to a new survey by the RSPB.

Conservationists are heralding the success of a project to bring bitterns (a type of heron) back from the brink of extinction.

Bitterns are highly secretive despite their claim to fame as Britain’s loudest bird. With their well camouflaged, pale, buffy-brown plumage, bitterns spend most of their time hiding in dense stands of reed and are so elusive scientists count them by listening for the males’ distinctive booming call.

Astonishing recovery

Since 2006, there has been a year-on-year increase in the number of bitterns making their home in Britain. This year numbers reached record levels once more with 198 males recorded at 89 sites. This compares to 188 at 82 sites in 2018.

They had completely disappeared in Britain by the 1870s, before recolonising early in the 20th century. However, they found themselves back on the brink in 1997 when numbers dropped to 11 males.

Simon Wotton, RSPB Senior Conservation Scientist, said: “Bitterns are one our most charismatic birds. Their astonishing recovery from the brink of extinction is a real conservation success story and example of what is possible through targeted efforts to restore wildlife habitat.

“It’s a delight to hear their distinctive booming call echoing across the reedbeds every year as more and more bitterns are making new or restored wetlands their home.”

Two EU LIFE funded projects helped reinvigorate the bittern population, alongside the legal safeguards in place within Special Protection Areas (SPAs).But the number of SPAs has not increased for 20 years, despite plans to designate more SPAs as bitterns arrived in their newly created habitats. 

Continued

Bitterns, curlews and lapwings at risk as vital wildlife funds dry up

Bird experts call on ministers to plug gap left by EU grants worth millions of pounds

Robin McKie

Sat 8 Dec 2018 16.00 GMT

They are some of the most elusive birds to nest in the UK. Indeed, they hide so well in their reedbed homes that ornithologists can only estimate bittern numbers by counting the sources of the booming sounds made by males in summer. It is a census that has produced alarming results. Only 11 booming bitterns were counted across the country in the 1990s.

But since then the bittern has begun to bounce back – thanks to a remarkable system of EU environment awards called Life grants. One of these, worth €3.9m (£3.5m), has helped ecologists restore the bittern’s reedbeds in South and West Yorkshire and rebuild bittern numbers.

Other threatened species to benefit from Life grants include stone curlews, golden plovers and lapwings, and plants such as the sundew.

But that Life grant system is now under threat itself, and unless a replacement is found a critically important mechanism for saving endangered species will be lost.

“This is an extremely worrying development,” said Alistair Taylor of the RSPB. “The Life fund has played a vital role in holding back destruction of the environment and loss of endangered species. If we lose them, it will make it much harder to stop the rot.”

Continued

Britain’s loudest bird enjoys population boom in East Anglia

Andrew Papworth

PUBLISHED: 17:31 19 September 2018 | UPDATED: 17:31 19 September 2018

There were once fears its distinctive booming sounds would be lost forever.

But new figures have shown that the bittern, once at threat of extinction, is very much back – with numbers in East Anglia at a record high.

Since 2006, there has been a year-on-year increase in the number of bitterns making their home in the region.

A survey has revealed that this year there were 83 males, compared to 76 in 2017 – which the RSPB says is a positive sign that bitterns are back from the brink and thriving.

Twenty years ago, there were only 20 in the whole of Britain.

Continued  

Bittern populations back from the brink of extinction in the UK

After facing near-extinction, the Bittern is back in numbers in our reedbeds

Bittern were extinct in the UK by the end of the 19th century and was absent as a breeding bird between the 1870s and 1911, when the first breeding male was recorded.

The bird returned to peak numbers in the 1950s with around 80 breeding males.

From that time the decline began again, attributable to habitat loss. By 1997 there were only 11 breeding males recorded in England.

Concern over a second UK extinction led to a concerted conservation programme which is driving the current recovery. 

Scientists count bitterns by listening for the male’s foghorn-like booming song, and this year over 150 males have been recorded in England and Wales.

During the breeding season, the bittern prefers sizeable tracts of wet reedbed – a habitat which, two decades ago, in the UK had become scarce and under managed.

Simon Wotton, an RSPB conservation scientist, comments: “In the late 1990s, the bittern was heading towards a second extinction in the UK, largely because its preferred habitat – wet reedbed – was drying out and required intensive management, restoration and habitat recreation.

Continued ...

Bird Notes: Bitterns are booming on Anglesey

Less than 20 years ago, Bitterns were on the verge of extinction in Britain. The males’ low booming call can carry more than a kilometre. With just 11 males in 1997, it was feared we would lose this reedbed-dwelling heron.

The shock figures triggered a huge habitat restoration effort, led by the RSPB with significant funding from the European Union. New reedbeds were created away from the east coast, vulnerable to rising sea levels. Other reedbeds were made wetter, with better access to fish.

This year, wardens counted 140 booming Bitterns, including 40 in Somerset where until recently no Bitterns had bred for decades. New reedbeds have been established on Anglesey, where RSPB wardens heard a Bittern booming this Spring, a positive sign for the future.

Another bird almost lost from our shores is the Roseate Tern, a seabird that winters off West Africa.

Over 100 pairs nested on Anglesey in the late 1980s. Now they are scarce visitors, though two were at NWWT Cemlyn Bay at the weekend, along with a Little Gull. A count of Little Terns at Gronant recorded 72 pairs settling down to nest on the beach.

Read on ...

Booming year for bitterns

More likely to be heard than seen, the bittern has been found in record numbers in England thanks to its loud call

Bitterns, which were once extinct in the UK, have been found to be at their highest levels ever recorded in England.

As a shy, secretive bird with plumage that perfectly camouflages it against its reed bed habitat, the bittern (Botaurus stellaris) can be easily overlooked.

However, the male’s booming mating call, created by pumping air through their throats and able to be heard from several kilometres away, gives its presence away and it is this distinctive call that has helped researchers count them.

The breeding population has just been discovered to be in the most rudest of health since the 1800s.

Continued ...

Rare bird in residence as Newcastle nature reserve opens to public

Jul 11, 2014 15:16

By Tony Henderson

0 Comments

Gosforth Park nature reserve holds an open day on Saturday, just in time for visitors to get a glimpse of a rare bird

A rare bird has taken up residence at a nature reserve - just in time for its public open day.

Gosforth Park nature reserve in Newcastle opens tomorrow (Saturday) from 10.30am-3.30pm.

The reserve is run by the Natural History Society of Northumbria, where members have been boosted by the appearance of three rare bitterns at the site over the winter.

The reserve has extensive reed beds, which are the bittern’s favoured habitat. The bird will stand erect and stretch its neck upwards to merge with the reeds around it.

The “booming” call of the male bittern seeking a mate in the spring is the giveaway to the presence of what is an elusive bird.

“We are trying to manage the reserve habitat to encourage bitterns to stay on and breed,” said a society spokesman.

Continued

Things are looking good for rare bird in Rye area

Published on the 05 May 2014 

15:42

A BIRD that was on the brink of extinction a century ago is making a strong come-back in the Rye area.

Bitterns, related to herons, are secretive birds skilled at concealing themselves.

Bittern RSPB SUS-140205-101744001

The only real give-away to their presence can be the ‘booming’ call of the male and so this is used as a measure of how many bitterns are around.

Now for the first time in its history, two male bitterns are calling for mates a the RSPB’s Dungeness reserve on Romney Marsh.

Reserve warden Natalie Holt said, “We had two teams out last week, they were in entirely different parts of the reserve and they each heard a calling bittern close by at precisely the same time - so there has to be two.”

A century ago bitterns had been driven to extinction through hunting for the pot and the drainage of the reed beds for farming. Efforts to bring them back had been slow, with only 11 ‘booming’ males in the UK by 1997. RSPB Dungeness became part of the recovery programme when, in 2007, the creation of reed beds in the former gravel pits commenced to encourage them back. The habitat and associated fish take time to establish and mature, so it was only in 2010 the first confirmed breeding took place. Since then a single bittern has been heard and at least two females have nested each year. The arrival of a second male is great news for the project, bringing the total to 122 in the UK.

http://www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/news/local/things-are-looking-good-for-rare-bird-in-rye-area-1-6035553

Trust aims to bring back rare birds to Staffordshire

A wildlife trust is aiming to bring back rare bitterns to Staffordshire by spending £25,000 on buying a quarry.

Staffordshire Wildlife Trust wants to buy 130-acre (5.2 sq km) Tucklesholme Quarry, near Barton-under-Needwood, and turn it into a nature reserve.

According to the RSPB, bitterns disappeared from Britain in 1886

The birds began to reappear in 1910 and their numbers picked up, before declining again. In 1997, there were just 11 males

Grahame Madge, RSPB spokesperson, said more was now known about the birds' habitats and efforts were being made to encourage stable inland breeding populations

So far the trust, which has been fundraising since early November, has raised £18,000 for the project.

The trust believes bitterns, which were once extinct in Britain, have not bred in the county for more than a century.

Continued