botaurus stellaris

I had a great day at lakenheah fen yesterday.Highlights of the day was watching two bitterns chasing each other for about 10mins over the reedbed.They came almost over my head 3 or 4 times .

Butor étoilé - Botaurus stellaris - Eurasian bittern

We are very lucky to have several thousand Bittern shots in our collection - which currently totals circa 750k photos.

From the Bittern Hide RSPB Minsmere

Photographed from the Bittern Hide at RSPB MInsmere

Great Bittern in Flight

Camouflaged, sort of.

with snack

A very common kind of hide conversation at Minsmere Anything about? Well, there's a Bittern out there Really, where? Well you see that slightly darker patch of reeds to the left of the tall reed with the broken tip? Do you mean the one just on the edge of the .... ;););)

Not the first time I've seen them swim, but I think it's uncommon!

Several people commented on my last Bittern posts about focussing among the reeds, almost all of my photos are taken handheld with autofocus but for these shots I used a tripod, live view and manual focus

Another shot of today's Bittern

Early morning, high ISO

Another shot from my close encounter earlier in the week

A nice close flyby yesterday at Minsmere