One of the things I love about the auto tour at Ridgefield is a chance to watch animals in their natural environment at close range without disrupting them, you get to see things you’d never see on the trails. I had a chance to watch this bittern over the course of a couple days around Christmas of 2009. The first day it made several strikes into the grasses at the edge of South Quigley Lake but came up empty each time. The next morning, however, I was startled when it came up with a Townsend’s vole. So startled that I barely managed a picture. I had no idea they would go after prey that large and figured that would be its last meal of the day.

So I was even more surprised when it struck a second time and caught another vole, as soon as I saw it strike I heard the vole shrieking and was better prepared for pictures. The bittern still wasn’t satisfied, it caught a large salamander a while later and only then decided to slip back under the cover of the marsh. The cattails grow so thickly here that with a few steps it was gone from sight.