The very hard winter of 2010/11 displaced many birds from Continental Europe to the UK including, most probably, this Great Bittern on the River Teme in Tenbury Wells Worcestershire. During its three week stay it proved a big attraction to birders and the general public alike due to its confiding nature and choice of winter quarters - viewable for most it's stay from the main road bridge into town. After finding it on my lunchtime walk from the main road bridge that straddles the Shropshire Worcestershire border I had to wait an agonising 2.5 weeks to be able to photograph the bird myself as my 7D was away being repaired. Eventually when the camera was back I managed to get some shots. I stalked the bird as it hunted and captured a series of frames where the bird caught and swallowed a large Brown Trout - simply amazing! The fish was caught fairly and squarely from the nearly frozen water by the bird totally unexpectedly, to both me and the poor trout.
More images of this bird are in my 'Shropshire Birds' gallery. If you are not familiar with pbase just click top left "all galleries" then click the image "gallery: Shropshire birds", then click each thumbnail to enlarge.

Enjoy the photos!