Gary Helm
American Bittern #1
Sun-gazer, the American bittern is called, as well as Stake Driver, Thunder Pump and Mire Drum. The names refer to the bittern's call, a deep resonant oonk-a-lunk, which has been likened to the bellowing of a bull or a hydraulic machine. It's odd that a bird this secretive makes such a racket.
Since the bittern is a winter visitor to Florida, we rarely hear its weird vocalizations, mostly made during the spring and summer.
They occur throughout Florida November through April, mostly in freshwater marshes, before returning to the northern U.S. and southern Canada to breed. Their numbers have been declining over the past three decades at an average rate of 2.4 percent per year, mostly due to loss of wetlands.
To see an American bittern, then, is luck indeed.
Today was my very lucky day then, because I saw this one on Marsh Rabbit Run Trail
and another 150 feet down the trail I saw another one.
Circle B Bar Reserve.
Polk County, Florida.
American Bittern #1
Sun-gazer, the American bittern is called, as well as Stake Driver, Thunder Pump and Mire Drum. The names refer to the bittern's call, a deep resonant oonk-a-lunk, which has been likened to the bellowing of a bull or a hydraulic machine. It's odd that a bird this secretive makes such a racket.
Since the bittern is a winter visitor to Florida, we rarely hear its weird vocalizations, mostly made during the spring and summer.
They occur throughout Florida November through April, mostly in freshwater marshes, before returning to the northern U.S. and southern Canada to breed. Their numbers have been declining over the past three decades at an average rate of 2.4 percent per year, mostly due to loss of wetlands.
To see an American bittern, then, is luck indeed.
Today was my very lucky day then, because I saw this one on Marsh Rabbit Run Trail
and another 150 feet down the trail I saw another one.
Circle B Bar Reserve.
Polk County, Florida.