Aurora borealis: Once Bittern, twice shy

April 03, 2006

Once Bittern, twice shy

Aurora header.jpg

There’s a definite feeling that Spring is in the air at last; actually, that’s kind of a lie, as this morning the Lang Kames had a sprinkling of snow on their northern faces, and there’s a chill north-westerly doing its damnedest to scorch the daffodils, but all the same, there’s change afoot.

Waders are very much in evidence all of a sudden, and there isn’t a field here that doesn’t now have a pair of Oystercatcher with muddy beaks mooching around it. More subtle, but far more evocative for me were the first drumming Snipe last week over the fields behind my house, and a Curlew this morning half-heartedly having a go at a towering display flight. The other failsafe sign of the sap rising is the return of summer-plumaged Red-throated Divers to freshwater.

West Loch (one of the two lochs near to the house) has had a busy couple of weeks recently. Red-throated Divers have returned, and a fortnight ago I found a Little Grebe puttering around the edge. Last weekend things ratcheted up significantly, with the finding of a Bittern on the road beside the loch. The road bit of that last sentence is a clue; none of us saw it alive, apart from presumably the driver of the car that it flew into. It now resides in BM’s freezer, presumably museum-bound. I’m afraid had I found it I’d have been rather less noble, and would have selfishly kept it for myself – a stuffed Bittern would have looked good in the study! As it was, walking the dogs with P and E on Saturday, I found a couple of under-feathers and this rather more striking example at the roadside:

Bittern feather.jpg

The first I knew of this bird was a text last Monday from JL, and on Friday the JL Bittern Hotline rang again – this time a bird over at the westside of Mainland Shetland. And still alive! Having seen plenty while I lived in the south of England, and mindful of my vows not to twitch non-lifers on Shetland, I’ve not been to see it.

Bittern is a bloody good record for Shetland, and there’ve only ever been a dozen or so seen in the islands. The last was in the mid 80’s, so this is one for the Shetland listers. I’m content to stick to my patch of the island, and dream of things to come later this year. Additions to the patch-list so far this year are Little Grebe and last Tuesday an early Sandwich Tern, so the next one wants to be a bit rarer. Hoopoe maybe?

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