Bitterns first became extinct in the UK in the late 1800s due to over-hunting and loss of their wetland habitats. The species returned in the early 1900s but numbers dwindled again at the turn of the century placing them on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC) Report’s Red List, as one of the UK’s most endangered bird species.
The latest RSPB Bittern Report for 2022, compiled from data collated by volunteers, staff and landowners for the Bittern Monitoring Programme, shows that Bittern boomed and bred at Willington Wetlands last year.
Although notoriously difficult to spot thanks to their favoured habitat deep in the reedbeds, Bitterns have distinctive nesting habits and can be identified through their foghorn like call, known as booming, which they use to attract female mates.
At Willington Wetlands, volunteers were able to record male bittern booming and a pair were repeatedly spotted flying to and from a presumed nest site, a positive sign that they were feeding nearby chicks.
Henry Richards, Living Landscape Officer at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust said:
“We are absolutely thrilled to have Bittern recorded booming and breeding here at Willington and hope that they will return to enjoy the reedbeds and resilient habitat that has been created for them.
“Derbyshire Wildlife Trust staff and volunteers have been managing the site, mimicking the actions of beavers, since acquiring it back in 2005, to help nature and wildlife take back this landscape. By keeping human impact low, Willington has become a mosaic of prime wetland habitats creating an important sanctuary for many forms of wildlife and attracting both common and rarer plants, birds and animals.
“In 2021, the Trust reintroduced beavers here, 800 years after they last inhabited the county. Following the licensed release, one pair bred and the first beaver kits were born in July 2022.
“This family has shaped and improved the site in ways that we couldn’t have imagined by making changes to their habitat, coppicing trees and shrub species, damming smaller water courses, and have even started to dig 'beaver canal' systems.
“These activities have been instrumental in creating a diverse and dynamic wetland which have provided enormous benefits for wildlife including otters, water voles, kingfisher, egret, frogs, toads, dragonflies and fish, as well as the really exciting and unexpected news about the bittern.”