BILL TEALE
07:00Saturday 11 June 2016
For those who missed it last year
there is another chance to see a rare visitor.
A male little bittern is back at
the RSPB’s Old Moor reserve near Barnsley. It was first seen early on Saturday
morning and since then, true to form, in brief flights across the reedbeds. It
has also been making its spring call, a muted dog-like barking.
Little bitterns, the smallest of
Europe’s herons, are summer visitors to Europe from Africa including wetlands
along the coasts of France, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Last year the first sighting was
on June 30 and the fact that this year the male is back about a month earlier
raises hopes that he might be joined by a female. A pair has bred in South
Yorkshire before, at the Potteric Carr reserve, Doncaster in 1984 and
successfully reared three young.
Good numbers of birders are
arriving at Old Moor in the hopes of seeing the little bittern from the Bittern
Hide or the Bus Stop, with varied success and often after a lengthy wait.
There are more sightings and
booming calls from its larger relative the Eurasian bittern with two nests
located on the reserve this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment