During February I spent several days sketching a bittern that was frequenting a tiny pond edged with reedmace. A friend had mentioned it to me and said that it was very obliging so the next morning I went to have a look for it. At first I thought that I must have got the wrong place as all I could find was indeed a very small pond in the middle a common linked by well used pathways frequented by numerous dog walkers. However, looking on the back edge was a bittern sitting right out in the open amazingly unconcerned by everything that was going on around it. Initially I set up my telescope at a distance and began to sketch it. As the morning went on a few more people started to arrive and they began to watch directly from the edge of the pond and then to my horror somebody went and sat on a bench over looking the pond right next to the bittern. I expected the bittern to either fly off or adopt its 'head in the air' camouflage posture but it did neither and just as I was considering asking the observers to move back a little to give it some space the bird began to walk towards the people and proceeded to fish for frogs out in the open only metres in front of them! I was lost for words so I thought that maybe it was ill but it soon became evident that it was very healthy. Maybe it had just arrived from the continent forced out by cold weather, but I learned from a local dog walker that it had been there for around a month - maybe it was simply an incredibly tame bittern!

I normally find it incredibly difficult to do much drawing and painting in the company of people but this really was a one-off so I tried to switch off and just concentrate on the rare opportunity. Having said that it was really quite nice to see so much general interest by people from all backgrounds. It was half-term too and several families came to see it. At times there was an atmosphere of genuine wonder and amazement as the bittern performed right in front of everyone without the need of optics to watch it.

It was incredible to watch it feeding, catching numerous frogs that were hiding in the half-submerged reedmace leaves and stems. A one stage it was fishing then nimbly ran forward and stabbed through the vegetation. I heard a high pitched squeaking - it sounded like a water shrew and after some violent tugging it pulled out its prey still alive and wriggling. It was indeed a water shrew, an amazing and rare sight and one that gave me mixed emotions. This surprised me as I had given surprisingly little thought to the welfare of the frogs. Still this was nature and I'm sure that water shrews form a regular part of bittern's diet. I certainly felt fortunate to have witnessed it for I had only seem a handful of water shrews before.

Towards the end of its stay the weather became much colder. Ice began to form on the pond during the night and this reflected a change in the bittern's feeding patten. It could not feed in the early mornings until the ice had began to thaw creating open areas at the pond edges which enabled it to catch frogs. Then the temperature fell to as low as -7°C and thick ice formed over the surface of the pond which didn't thaw at all for several days. The bittern remained at the back of the pond sitting hunched up and inactive for it would not be able to feed. Unfortunately this corresponded with the weekend and larger numbers of people gathered. Not surprisingly the bittern flew off to find an alternative place to rest or feed - possibly to hunt voles in grassy pastures for there was no point remaining here, unable to feed, with an ever growing audience of admirers.