Once bittern, twice fly – pair of rare wading birds appear on Teesside as rewilding pays off

The most northerly breeding pair of Bitterns has been recorded on Teesside in a triumph for environmentalists who prepared the perfect conditions for them on the RSPB Saltholme reserve.

Nationally, the elusive birds are bouncing back, with a fantastic 228 booming males counted in the UK during their last breeding season with over half of the UK’s Bittern population found on RSPB reserves.

But news that they have now settled as far north as Teesside was a cause for a special celebration and a demonstration that ecosystems can be repaired and that bird populations don’t necessarily always have to decline, if the will is there to support them.

A member of the Heron family, the Bittern is a threatened species and is on the UK Amber list. 

Having gone extinct in the UK in the 1870s, the species returned to Norfolk in 1900 but dropped again to just 11 booming males by 1997, leaving them on the edge of a second national extinction. 

The Bittern population drastically declined from 1950 onwards to a low point in 1997 when there were only 11 booming males left in the UK. This decline was caused by a loss of high-quality habitat as Britain’s reedbeds dried out through neglect or were drained for other agricultural uses. 

The RSPB started a research programme in 1990 to investigate the needs of the Bittern and looked at their habitat, feeding and nesting requirements. The results enabled the charity to manage and create wetland habitat suitable for Bitterns, and, when the RSPB Saltholme reserve was first opened in 2009, a key objective of this site was to attract breeding Bittern to these Teesside reedbeds.

Bitterns are a secretive and rare bird and are dependent on reedbed habitats as they move through them at the water’s edge, seeking out fish, insects, and amphibians to eat. The males make a remarkable far-carrying booming sound in spring, a call which they use to establish territories and attract their female mates. 

Over the last 13 years these reedbeds at Saltholme have matured and the water levels have been carefully managed by RSPB’s expert conservationists to ensure they remained flooded. Alongside this, fish surveys were undertaken by staff and volunteers to ensure enough fish were present for the Bitterns to feed on.

In 2012 a male Bittern was heard booming for the very first time at RSPB Saltholme in an attempt to attract a female but was sadly unsuccessful. Then in 2022 a male Bittern was once again heard booming and this time sightings of regular feeding flights to a nest indicated a successful breeding pair. Regular feeding flights were observed in June and July as the male took fish back to the nest for the female to do the feeding.

Ed Pritchard, Warden at RSPB Saltholme, said, “The confirmation that our Bitterns are the most northerly successful breeding pair at an RSPB reserve in the UK is a fantastic result for nature on Teesside.  I’ve been warden here for eight years so this is such special news and the result of lots of hard teamwork.”

 “During the cold January days in 2023 when the pools froze over the Bittern were once again seen feeding at the edge of the reedbed, and now spring has arrived, we are looking forward to hearing the booming of the male bird once again.

“We will continue to create and maintain the right habitat for breeding Bitterns. Most recently we have been cutting areas of established reed to establish the right habitat conditions, a task that couldn’t have achieved this without the support of our volunteers.”

Chris Francis, site manager at RSPB Saltholme, said: “The first breeding record of Bittern on site added to what was a fantastic year at RSPB Saltholme where we celebrated the success of our breeding Avocet and Lapwing alongside winning a third VisitEngland Gold Award.

“Our visitors have been delighted with sights of a lone male Bittern feeding and flying again across the reserve this April and we’re looking forward to building on our conservation successes in 2023.”