The Boom of the Bittern with Jeremy Vine
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What do we hear and see when visiting RSPB Ham Wall reed beds?
God, it's got a long tail, hasn't it? That's its feet. That's its feet. Yeah, they have very long feet, yes. And legs, yeah. Feet and legs, yeah.
But it must be flying like that with its feet, like that. Don't you prefer to just let them relax?
Streamlined, aren't they, though?
I'm Sean Bean and this is Get Birding. That's the first time I've seen a great white egret today.
Just now, yeah.
Never seen them before. In this episode, we're on the ground at RSPB Ham Walk, looking out across the reed beds and into one of the UK's richest wetland habitats.
And the Irish babies took these pieces of land on starting in 1994, so we're 32 years old. 32 years. Wow. Of course, it was built really for bitten.
I'll be joined by broadcaster Jeremy Vine.
I found a picture of a sparrow to hold up.
Oh, that's Sparrowhawk. Yeah.
Ah, it is. You're right. You're absolutely right. They probably eat sparrows. And that's the difference between us. Oh, my Lord. You've immediately outranked me on my bird. I thought it was a big sparrow. Because I'm the guy who knows nothing about birds.
Dr Myrose Craig and Jason Singh.
Bitten, people refer to it with this booming, this boom.
and a new friend of the show, and enthusiastic birder, Geoff Holmes. That's a chuff, isn't it?
That's a chuff with a red beak, yeah.
That's your little chuff. We're really chuffed because they're coming back, aren't we?
When somebody's noticing you now, they're your little chuff.
This one's quite lazy. So two or three booms only, this one. I heard you, yeah.
Bittens are deep in the reeds.
So it sounds like, imagine you had a big milk bottle. Yeah. Blowing over the top of that milk bottle. And that can carry like four or five kilometres. So this is obviously sounding out for females.
In 1997, just 11 male bitters boomed around the UK.
And so the RSPB and other organisations looked at this and thought we need to do something about this.
How did habitat restoration at Ham Wall help bitterns recover?
Over the past 30 years, this species has bounced back due to the creation of new reed beds. Here's Steve from the RSPB to tell us more.
Looks quite natural, doesn't it, this?
Yeah.
But it's not, is it? It's all created, yeah. It's all man-made, yeah. So this is kind of post-industrial, really. This is a peat extraction area. So lots of this land has been peat extracted. Of course, you're left with these big holes in the ground afterwards. Yeah, so it was all peat bogs. Yeah, so peat bogs, yeah, years and years ago. Of course, then in sort of 17th century, people started to drain the land. The Dutch came over because they're the expert at this kind of thing. Yeah. To reclaim all this land. And then over time, obviously, the peat extraction started really kind of post-war. It kind of picked up sort of horticulture kind of thing. Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah. So you left these massive holes in the ground, so three or four metres of peat's been taken out.
And the Irish babies took these pieces of land on. So we now have, this year we've had 18 booming males, but just on hand walk alone. And one sort of off the edge over here. So 19 just in this area and across the whole of the marshes.
When they're normal, they're just crouched over with the beak. But then when they think they're being watched or they're alarmed, they kind of put their head up, they look like a reed. And they've got great crested greaves.
I've seen one, beautiful, aren't they?
I was reading last night. They almost became extinct, didn't they? Because they were killed for the feathers.
Really, their origins, yeah, the RSPB is through that. It was women that got together. They were really appalled by what they were seeing in the sort of fashion industry.
For hats and stuff.
Yeah, greed feathers, egret feathers, yeah, for hats and other attire. And they campaigned for it to be banned. Yeah. and successfully and I said that's how the Irish baby really started yeah yeah through campaigning you've been working here for how long 20 20 20 years yeah yeah I wouldn't quite say man and boy but yeah a long time seen some big changes every day all the time here yeah five five six days a week yeah we're here what a great place to work hey this is my office
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What do we hear and see when visiting RSPB Ham Wall reed beds?
0:08–2:36
2
How did habitat restoration at Ham Wall help bitterns recover?
2:36–8:20
3
What is the history of peat extraction and landscape creation on the Somerset Levels?
8:20–11:02
4
How many bitterns and other wetland birds are now booming and breeding at Ham Wall?
11:02–17:57
5
What species and feeding behaviours do RSPB staff describe at the reserve?
17:57–25:46
6
How did lifelong birder Jeff Holmes get into birdwatching and what has he observed?
25:46–27:54