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Finding Least Bitterns in winter



I concur with Jack Peachey.  You would be very lucky to find a Least Bittern
at Huntington Beach State Park, or anyplace else in South Carolina, in
winter.  Actually I DID have a Least Bittern at HBSP one January, but that
was a definite fluke. Having lived and birded many years in Tallahassee, FL
I can say that finding a Least Bittern in north Florida in winter is almost
as hard as finding one in the Carolinas.  You have to be far enough south to
avoid most freezes -- which means South Florida, south of a line drawn
roughly from Cape Canaveral to St. Petersburg.

A very good resource for finding where to look for a bird species in the
U.S. in winter is a copy of the American Birds Christmas Bird Count issue.
Looking over my copy for the 1999 - 2000 count season I see that the high
count circle for this year for Least Bittern was West Palm Beach (16 counted
in 1999). The all-time record for Least Bittern is also in West Palm
Beach -- 79 in 1984.  This tells me that a good place to look for Least
Bittern might be Loxahatchee NWR, or some other south Florida marsh. You
might also try the Ecopond in Everglades NP.

Check out the web site for the Audubon Society of the Everglades
(http://myweb.flinet.com/~audubon/). Send someone there an email to get a
better idea of exactly where to look.

By mid-April the Least Bitterns will be back in South Carolina.  Then try
Savannah NWR, Bear Island WMA, Huntington Beach State Park, Magnolia
Gardens, or just about any good fresh water marsh. But, until then, head
south, way south.

Robin Carter
Columbia, SC
rcarter@sc.rr.com