Pollutants in Great Bitterns

01 January 1994
Comments Main paper Within its localised reed-bed habitat, the Great Bittern Botaurus stellaris has declined in Britain in recent decades, even though its main breeding haunts are protected as reserves (Day & Wilson 1978; Smith & Tyler 1993). The reasons for the d...
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Mystery photographs

01 February 1985
Comments Main paper  It is late in the year and you are sitting alone in a hide overlooking an area of pools, reedbeds arid small bushes. Suddenly, as if by magic, a large bird materialises at the edge of a nearby reedbed. The combination of large size, thick, p...
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Wintering Bitterns in Britain

01 January 1981
Comments Main paper The Bittern Botaurus stellaris currently numbers less than 50 pairs in Britain and is becoming scarcer (Day & Wilson 1978). It has long been known to be susceptible to severe winter weather (Riviere 1930), which may temporarily affect the populatio...
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Breeding Bitterns in Britain

01 July 1978
Comments Main paper The Bittern Botaurus stellaris was the first of six former breeding birds to recolonise Britain this century, preceding the next, the Avocet Recurvirostra avosetta, by 35 years. This paper draws together for the first time the rather scattered referenc...
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Some Notes on the Bittern

01 October 1940
Comments Main paper the last ten days of April, 1940, I was able, bycourtesy of Mr. Jim Vincent, to sit in a hide over a Bittern (Botaurus s. stellaris). The following notes refer only to points not made in The Handbook of British Birds. A visit for any purpose of the cock b...
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