American Bittern

This is the American Bittern that has been frequenting the area of the two little ponds behind the Nature Center since October 9, as reported by Richard Soffer. Dave Cadra and I have been trying to photograph this bird ever since that date, but whenever we were lucky enough to locate the bird, it always flushed before we could spot it on the ground. Finally late afternoon of the last day of October Dave spotted it out in the open, and he called me on his cell phone. I was there within minutes and managed to get some good shots of a very elusive bird.