Tag Archives: American bittern

The Start of the Year

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An American bittern holds a Townsend's vole above the ice on a winter's day

Pity the Townsend's vole, an important food source in the diet of a large variety of predators at Ridgefield

Although I failed in my quest to find a bittern in the frost on the last day of 2010, the first day of 2011 rewarded me with a bittern on the ice — a hunting bittern on the ice.

The day started out promising when I glimpsed a blacktail buck on the drive down through the canyon and onto the refuge at Ridgefield, but after putting on a show the day before the rest of the animals seemed to be sleeping in. While the early hours weren’t crowded, as the morning wore on the visitors picked up rapidly and the big lens attracted a small crowd whenever I stopped.

On the far side of the refuge, I like to drive slowly along Rest Lake to look for bitterns, so I pulled over to let an approaching car past so that I could move at my own pace. Even as I was pulling over I noticed this bittern down below in the frozen channel and settled in to watch. Within moments the bittern struck into the grass and brought out this terrified vole.

Bitterns often like to dunk their prey in the water and so it gingerly stepped down the rim of ice, struggling not to slip, and then dunked the vole into the water. Or tried to at least, but failed, since the water in this section was still frozen. It seemed mystified for a moment and stood motionless before eating its meal undunked.

After taking a few environmental portraits of the bittern on the ice, I moved ahead just slightly to another nice location and waited for the bittern to come past. But a Land Rover came up behind me and the couple got out of their car (a no-no on the auto tour during the winter) to set up their scope to view the distant ducks and swans.

Not surprisingly I didn’t see the bittern again.

When I got to the end of the auto tour, I was going to go around again but my heart sank when I saw a nearly solid line of cars between Horse and South Quigley Lakes. I learned my lesson from Christmas day, when I should have left when it got over-crowded but didn’t, and headed home.

Ellie got an extra walk and playtime in the park, and extra hedgehogging as well, so all-in-all a fantastic start to the year for everyone but the vole.


An American bittern tries to dunk a Townsend's vole through the ice on a winter's day

Neither bittern nor vole was happy with the outcome of this dunk attempt, but the vole got the worst of it

Neither Rain Nor Snow …

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A bittern sits beside a marsh in the rain and snow at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

The end of 2009 brought a surprise snowstorm followed by cold rains. If you’re a hungry predator, you can’t wait out the bad weather if you want to eat. Two bitterns were working the edge of South Quigley Lake, there was one a few feet below me that was actively stalking the shoreline (you’ve seen its handiwork catching voles in other posts), while this one further up the road stayed fairly still and seemed more interested in opportunistic meals.

I Don’t Care How Hard It’s Raining, You Can’t Come in the Car!

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A straight-on, close-up view of an American bittern's head and beak on a rainy day at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

Sorry little bittern, I don’t make the rules!

As a younger man I might have spent New Year’s Day watching football for eight hours, but in 2010 I kicked off the new year at Ridgefield with eight hours of watching bitterns. I did venture around to other parts of the auto tour but spent most of the day sitting still at South Quigley Lake with the bitterns. I love photographing in the rain and was fortunate enough to get this straight-on portrait of one bittern before a quick shake sent the drops on its head flying. It paid me little heed as it hunted for voles and salamanders a few feet below me as it wandered up and down the shoreline and in and out of the marsh.

I had the lens aperture set to f/16 to keep as much sharpness as I could from the beak back to the eyes and water drops. Thanks to the low light, small aperture, and extension tubes for close focus, even at ISO 3200 my shutter speed was a woeful 1/25th of a second, even with image stabilization and a beanbag for support I didn’t have high hopes I’d get a good image with such a long telephoto lens.

This time I got lucky.

Dunk Contest

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A close-up view of an American bittern catching a Townsend's vole at Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

From what I’ve seen, bitterns are one of a small number of birds that could play in the NBA based on their propensity to dunk. I’ve seen them catch voles and salamanders and snakes and frogs and, if possible, all of them get quick dunks into the pond while the bittern applies constant pressure with its large beak. It’s much too fast to be an attempt to drown the creature, it really is just a quick splash in the water, but I’m not sure what purpose it serves. This Townsend’s vole is coming up from a dunking and as I recall, got at least one more before it finally stopped wiggling and the bittern swallowed it whole.

I have seen bitterns hold snakes under the water for an extended period of time, gripping them with their bare feet, and that may have been an attempt to drown the snake, get it so cold that it would move slowly, or just keep the bitey-bits away from sensitive areas until pressure killed it.