BIRDS OF NANTUCKET
THE BELLOWING BULL OF THE MARSH
by Kenneth Turner Blackshaw
Just a few Sundays ago, 45 enthusiastic birders, including a dozen from Massachusetts Audubon in Ipswich, clustered along a fence rail on the Polpis Road at Folger's Marsh in the near freezing northwest wind hoping for a glimpse of a bird. Actually we were hoping for three different ones but any would be good.

American Bittern

We first played the call of the Virginia Rail, the bird in this column two weeks ago. After three tries, one sounded off about 30 feet from us with a fine series of grunts. But he chose to remain hidden. Then we tried the call of another rail, the Sora, but perhaps the chilly wind dampened its enthusiasm.

Finally we tried the call of this week's bird, the American Bittern. The player emitted a grotesque series of sounds like an old hand water pump would make. Again - nothing. But you don't know until you try. If we polled the group I'd bet 75 percent would say they'd never seen a bittern, but many more would say they have heard one.

"Bittern" is a strange word. It goes back to a Latin phrase referring to the bellowing of a bull. The scientific name, Botaurus lentiginosus, can be translated as a freckled creature that sounds like a bull. Based on this information you must have a mental image of this boisterous, feathered beast, stomping and snorting its way through the marsh. But, oh dear, wipe that image from your brain.

American Bitterns are among the most retiring of birds. To quote the early New England naturalist, Eliott Coues, "No doubt he enjoys life after his own fashion, but his notions of happiness are peculiar. He prefers solitude, and leads the eccentric life of a recluse, forgetting the world, and by the world forgot."

They are heron-like - not like a Great Blue though - more like a night-heron. Actually a young night-heron is the bird with which they'd most often be confused. So we have a mainly brown, streaked bird with a long yellowish bill. In flight the primary feathers in the outer wing are dark and contrast sharply with the brown elsewhere. And it is in flight that most bitterns are seen. It requires great luck to catch one in the open.

These birds are rare year-round here on Nantucket. They used to be encountered more frequently but an alien invader is displacing them. This is not another bird but an aggressive plant that is making our native cattail marshes rarer and rarer. I speak of the tall, brush-tipped reed known as Phragmites. Although there is a native Phragmites, the one causing so many problems is from Europe. Our poor American Bitterns are now considered 'endangered' in Massachusetts, not only because wetlands are being drained and filled, but also few of the remaining ones contain any cattails.

Like so many year-round birds, the winter population migrates in from Canada, replacing our summer birds that head south. Strangely, this bird is not unusual on the island of Bermuda, over 600 miles from North American shores. It's a long flight out there, and in the late 1800s an 'officer' shot 13 in one season. I read several instances of this bird being a target. It's illegal now, and other than to prove shooting prowess, why would anyone do it? Their flesh is close to inedible.

So often the 'you are what you eat' phrase comes to mind and bitterns eat almost anything - a little vegetable matter - and any animal they can catch. A young bittern that was caught immediately spit up one garter snake about sixteen inches long, a meadow mouse and three crayfish, all partially digested. When you consider they are fed by regurgitation, you have to think about first swallowing the snake, bad enough, but then returning it? Dedicated parents are these.

Bitterns build a grass nest in the reeds quite early in the year. As incubation and chick raising occurs, the reeds grow up and form a canopy over the nest making it harder to locate. The birds develop runways they use to approach and leave the nest so that you never see them fly directly to or from it.

These birds have been confirmed to nest on Nantucket but not in recent years. Over the next weeks we'll be listening for the thunder-pumping

sound of an American Bittern trying to attract a mate.

Folger's Marsh and the marshes around Long Pond are good places to try. Their favorite time of day is the hour following sunset, so that can make for a great activity for a mild spring evening. Drop me a note if you are lucky enough to hear the bellowing bull of the marsh.

George C. West creates illustrations for these articles. If you enjoy 'social' birding, join the Nantucket Bird Club at 8 a.m. Sundays in front of Nantucket High School for a two to three hour birding trip. Call 228-1693 for more information. To hear about rare birds, or to leave a bird report call the Massachusetts Audubon hot line at 1-781-259-8805. Find more about Birding Nantucket on the web at http://k-blackshaw.

com/BN/BN.htm. I