Just before leaving the house today I received my copies of the Richard Jeffery Society Newsletter and Journal. It is always a treat receiving these as they're well edited, informative and allows me to learn more of Jefferies writing.
I had the day off and following a delayed start due to problems on the motorway Julie and I eventually arrived at Catcott. We had a number of highlights while walking along a drive, chiffchaff calling, fieldfare flock still here, a tawny owl hooting during the day, male sparrowhawk and a lovely close up view of a marsh harrier flying. Possibly at the top of today's observations (aside from deer), was a bittern flying across open water. Beautiful views and Julie's first ever sighting of a bittern.
I was going to write an Instagram posting about this fly by, but decided on a different course. But I had already looked up a reference to bitterns in chapter 12 of Wild Life In A Southern County by Richard Jefferies, published in 1879,
"Once, some five-and-twenty years ago, a sportsman startled a great bird out of the spot where the streams join, and shot it, thinking it was a heron. But seeing that it was no common heron, he had it examined, and it was found to be a bittern, and as such was carefully preserved. It was the last visit of bitterns to the place; even then they were so rare as not to be recognised: now the progress of agriculture has entirely banished them."
How the fortunes of bitterns have changed, now preserved and conserved, bitterns are making a remarkable comeback, especially within the Somerset Levels wetlands.
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