BIRDS
Cryptic & Beautiful Words and Pictures by William Bowell
Despite the popular religious verse, not all things bright are beautiful. Or rather, some things not so bright are beautiful. In the bird world, we often think of the female of the species as being dull and brown. This has obvious evolutionary benefits, such as being able to sit on a nest unnoticed from predators. The bold and brash plumages of males might draw unwanted attention if sat on the nest. Indeed, among Phalaropes, where roles are reversed, and females leave the dowdy males to tend to the nest and young; it is the females who are the show offs with their show-stopping colours. But I digress, as I often do long-suffering reader. In some species, both sexes are alike as they want to avoid the gaze of the likes of you or me (and predators of course), and neither are lookers. Or are they? If you look very, very hard and pay extra attention to detail, these often-hidden gems are just as stunning as their more colourful counterparts. A mix of shades of brown, orange, black and white make for a cryptic and beautiful plumage but also keeps the bird hidden from view. One such cryptic camouflaged creature, the Bittern, has made a remarkable comeback over the past three
Bittern- amazing plumage lets this large bird sneak around in reeds unseen. 46
decades. It is a heron species, which lives in reedbeds and has a particular liking for Rudd. It remains mostly unseen but, in the spring, males famously give their presence away with an incredible gulping ‘boom’ at dawn and dusk. In my pre-teens I remember it made national news that there were less than ten pairs left breeding in the country. The RSPB and other wildlife conservation organisations have made a tremendous effort to restore reedbed and wetland habitats and such is the success we now have booming Bitterns breeding around the Deepings!
Short-eared Owls might be easy to spot on a post but when roosting in tall grass, they become quite a challenge.
From the big to the small: the Jack Snipe. Any patch of damp grass with puddles can attract this delicate winter wader and they are renowned for being one of most secretive species in Britain. They have such a faith in their invisibility, that they don’t move a muscle unless you nearly tread on them. And that’s not an exaggeration, dear reader!
Their subtle plumage, designed to blend into the reeds, makes them a real challenge to spot but when you do see one And once they have flown up from they are way more than your feet, you are left thinking, just a brown bird. They ‘How did I not see that?’ With are stocky birds, on long the thermal imaging becoming green legs with massive affordable, the secret world of green feet, which help Jacko’s (as we famously call them) them wade as well climb has been unveiled. They remain up reeds. Their plumage is Way more than just black and brown. Jack motionless which allows close study a mix of brown and black Snipe have nearly every colour on the spectrum to of what is a very beautiful bird, with white and males have camouflage themselves. covered in golden stripes which are incredible blue ‘lores’ near broken up with dark browns and the bill. When they stand dead still, as they often do, blacks. An even closer look reveals exquisite turquoise they look like a bunch of reeds. hues with white feather fringing.
