FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] American Bittern

[James Brooks <comeback@xxxxxxxx>]

About three weeks ago my neighbor described a bird she'd seen below her spring 
house that stood with its bill straight in the air. I asked her to call if it 
should ever appear again. Thursday I got the call and walked down and found an 
immature American Bittern in the cattails and reeds below her spring house. 
I called Don Carrier and suggested he come by at dusk, but the neighbor said 
her neighbor's numerous kids were riding closeby all weekend on a four-wheeler 
and she doubted the bird would come back. 
Sunday night Don came over anyhow and we drove into the hollow and just as we 
turned into her driveway he said, "There it is." 
The kids on the four-wheeler were passing by on the embankment right over its 
head as it froze. Don moved up and I got out with video camera, but the bird 
had moved and I had trouble locating it. Don got his shots and I got about 2 
seconds of video in flight, clearly showing the black wing tips. 
The continued presence of the bird, probably feeding on chorus frogs, for 
several weeks gives some hope that it might find a mate and nest along the 
creek on the other side of the road. This is the dense cover that it flies to, 
and I believe it is mostly feeding at the spring house marshy area. 
Because of the stress this bird is under I have not put up a posting to bring 
even more people in, but Don got some excellent shots that he has shared 
already on his web site. 
The family with the kids is not of the type you could ask to give the area a 
wide berth because there is a rare bird there. They'd just get in the marsh 
with the four-wheeler and smash that sucker flat in hopes of seeing, or 
shooting, the bird for themselves. 
If things calm down I'll post a more exact location, but for the record, for 
now it is at Bear Run in Washington County. That's not a fer piece from Lake 
Woebegone. 

James Brooks 
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