Drink one and a half kilometers

Well, the photoanimalist colleagues correctly understood that it would be about drinks. Just as big drinks happen much less often than small feasts, meeting a big bittern is like picking a solid jackpot. Thank God, small bitternies are literally under our feet, so it’s a sin not to take them off. The habitat of these gloomy silent people is located not far from the open-cast mine, therefore, during the filming of the detectives, from time to time I also looked at the bitterns.

One of the pairs of small bitterns in this place (up to a meter !!) has been nesting for several years and falls into my lenses every year.

Was at their last weekend - already have chicks. Heard howl yelling for food. Judging by the voices - three. Or one of the two has a broken voice, like that of teenagers.)) All the time I met this couple, I was undermined by the desire to go and take off the nest. Before him, eight to ten meters in shallow water. BUT respect for someone else's private life and unwillingness to disturb the family for the sake of a couple of crediting frames is still winning. In the last post about owls, I undertook to give advice on their filming, and I will continue here. Moreover, there is only one advice: when you see a small bittern, do not twitch your members, especially the lens pipe. If all movements are done very smoothly and without looking at the bird’s eyes, then you can perform a striptease in front of it two times with dressing and exercises on a pole.

But the first and most important thing in shooting a small bittern is to SEE it in a thick, usually reed-reed.

Except, of course, in such cases:

Although some manage not to notice a bittern and like that. To compare the size of the bird in the hunting and alarming stance, I merged two frames into one.

As they say, feel the difference!

Since I’m shooting from a car, having approached the reservoir a little further than the shooting distance, I first look around the middle and upper parts of the reed stalks. Sometimes bitterns sit there, watching the situation or someone frightened up to you. Then I drive up as close to the water as possible and carefully look around, slowly (!!) moving along the coast. Bittern hunts near the cut of water relative to the reed, sometimes even drowning the stems with its own weight. Most often “holds” a reed in each paw, less often sits on one stem with both paws.

If there are separately growing reeds near (a meter, a half and two) from the main mass of thickets, then it is very likely that the bird will use them for hunting sooner or later. There is a wider overview and more animals. Patience is your main ally.

The bittern is able to sit completely motionless (barely moving only its eyes) for hours, the mimicry of its plumage is simply amazing, and to see a bird among the interweaving of reed stems is not easy, it is almost impossible for an inexperienced eye. But over time, you will notice her from a hundred meters. Like me (modestly))

This was frightened off by a milkmaid who drove past the car. I didn’t see him, but bittern yes.

And one more tip. If you find a “drink” place, then do not look for even more happiness for yourself. One way or another, sooner or later, but it will certainly appear on its lands to hunt. Especially during the period of feeding the chicks. Wait and be rewarded to you! I usually barrage here and there along the pond, grabbing along the road when the kingfisher, when the swallow, cuckoo, thrush, moorhen and other inhabitants of the reed.

The acrobatic abilities and hunting skills of the small bittern are simply amazing. In addition to tadpoles, frogs and fish, bittern does not disdain dragonflies of all sizes, catching them on the fly.

Most often, female nurses come across. He saw the male only a couple of times. And it’s not for hunting, but looking out for his homies before football.