Hello Tweets,

American bitterns are fairly regular visitors to our neighborhood, but
Wednesday we had an unusual sighting of 6 bitterns at the same time in a
marshy field below our home in Brady.

About 7:15 in the morning we watched a group of four bitterns fly in and set
down in the field. Very soon, two began running at each other, flew the
short distance between themselves and began pecking at each others' heads
while flapping their wings. This didn't last long and two of them flew
away. Those two continued to fly in large circles over our neighbor's
fields and back to
ours. They made 4 or 5 trips in the 30 minutes we watched them, but didn't
set down again in our field.

The remaining two flew about 20 yards to a small marsh off of a creek right
in front of our house. We then noticed there was another bittern already in
the marsh. (Now we're up to 5 birds.) Those 3 birds moved around the marsh,
one in particular pursuing another. They moved much more quickly than I've
ever seen them move on land-bent down low with their necks and heads
parallel to the ground. Eventually one (I assume the male) followed another
one with his large white shoulder patches exposed. In that light, the
patches fairly glowed. It was certainly easy to spot the bird. The male
continued to strut around with the exposed white patches even after the
female flew back across the marsh. The other remaining bird flew to the
grasses across the creek but we could not locate its new spot due to the
density of the grass. Just as the bird left to fly across the creek, we
looked into the field again and there were still 3 birds there! Being
focused on the action, we hadn't seen it. The 6th bird must have been there
all along. One of those 3 birds flew away and again we looked up and there
were still 3 birds in the field. I am not sure if that was a 7th individual
or if the bird we lost sight of in the tall grass across the creek had
flown back. In any instance there were definitely 6 birds and perhaps 7.
Maybe we'll have a nest nearby with all this action.

Carol Boyer
Brady

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