My favourite two images of a male Least Bittern that allowed two of us some long looked/hoped for shots. Its not often that one gets an unobstructed view of these Bitterns.

Usually most elusive, this Bittern now gave us an opportunity for quite a few shots. First, as shown in these two images, it perched on a log; then, as shown in previous postings, it flew to a thick area of cattails only about six meters from where we were standing. Once in the cattails, it at first stayed low and out of sight; then, all of a sudden we spotted it climbing to the top of the cattails where it just looked us over for several minutes before disappearing. Unbelievably, it stayed put when a cyclist drove up on the boardwalk to see what we were doing, and also when one of us dropped something. Our lucky day.

Top Image: Looking right towards the patch of reeds to which it flew from the log.


Crouching low for take-off.