Booming bittern at Dungeness

Last modified: 15 May 2009

Bittern profile - Nigel Blake

The bittern - a shy heron formerly extinct in Britain – has been heard at RSPB Dungeness during the breeding season for the first time in the reserve's history.

The presence of a booming male, named after its distinctive mating call, follows a five-year, £160,000 project enhancing and expanding the reserve's reedbeds – the bird's main watery habitat.

The improvements have also seen a host of other reedbed species increase on the reserve including marsh harriers, bearded tits, water rails and reed warblers.

Bob Gomes, RSPB Dungeness site manager, said: 'This is a major step forward. We've been working flat out to create suitable reedbeds on site. In recent years, we were rewarded by more bitterns wintering here, but they always left for Europe to breed. Looks like one is finally hanging around for spring. It's very satisfying to see.

'This is a major step forward. We've been working flat out to create suitable reedbeds on site.'

'Whether there is a female here is anyone's guess. Bitterns are masters of camouflage so the male's booming call is the best way of locating one. The only way we'll know for sure that they have nested successfully will be if we see the parents flying to a nest with food or if young start to appear. This won't be until at least the end of the month, so we'll just have to be patient.'

Bitterns disappeared from Britain as a breeding bird in 1886 and drainage of the UK's wetlands means they have endured a boom-and-bust history every since, plummeting to just 11 booming males in England in 1997. Its dependence on reedbeds and small population size makes it a Red Listed species, one of the most threatened in the UK.

Reversing the decline

A nationwide project was launched in 2002, funded through the EU's LIFE-Nature programme, to reverse bittern declines. This project involved the creation or improvement of reedbeds at 19 UK sites, including Dungeness.

RSPB Dungeness has also received significant funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Natural England through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) for works to help the elusive bittern. The most recent grant from ALSF paid for the creation and connection of ditches within the reedbed system to encourage the movement of fish across the site, a vital food source for the bittern. It also funded the clearance of scrub from existing reedbed.

Mr Gomes added: 'Things are looking hopeful though, all the more reason to fight against the threat of Lydd Airport Expansion. The development could signal the death knoll for these wonderful birds here, just when they are beginning to claw back from extinction.'