Of the many pleasant experiences I had at the convention, one stands out. American Bitterns (*Botaurus lentiginosis*) put on quite a show at Russell Lakes SWA (Saguache County), destination of a daily field trip. I heard that on the Friday participants saw several bitterns well, including a pair copulating. As Joe Himmel would have said, "Soon there will be little Bitts."
On my Saturday half day field trip to Russell Lakes, our stalwart group of 16 conventioneers took in a dozen or so American Bitterns, life birds for some. Bitterns were standing in the marsh, bitterns were flying above the cattails, and bitterns were gulping, "*oon-ka-choonk, oon-ka-choonk*." I think that the main reason they perform their *basso profundo *love song is so those of us with high-pitch hearing loss finally get a chance to cry out, "I hear that!" One American Bittern landed near us in plain view in short grass and assumed its typical vertical posture, as if to say, "You can't see me!" But we could. The most amazing sight of all was a pair of bitterns setting the Botaurus high-altitude flight record. The lead bird, presumably the female, led her suitor into the air. As she flapped over the marsh, he followed 30 feet behind, matching her route and languid aerobatics. She circled and slowly gained altitude until the (O.J. style) chase continued to over sixty feet, at what must have seemed like the stratosphere for bitterns. I lost interest before the birds did, but presumably they had a happy landing. Joe Roller, Denver -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/CAJpZcUD4u1v2pQcSZa8k7HcWEgSWoxUMFRmUraT_%3DRVqjvdZ-A%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
