Birdwatching: The best time to see the elusive bittern

But from now on there are more opportunities for sightings of female bitterns making provisioning flights to their nests

The flights can be quite lengthy as the females- males play no part in rearing the young- head off to catch small fish and invertebrates to bring back for the young.

They can be seen at any time of the day but the favourite times seem to be around 10am and 2pm.

Often the first indication is a flock of gulls mobbing something. Then a stockily built, medium sized bird with broad rounded wings comes into view, flying steadily with a few quick wing beats, sometimes low over the reeds before dropping out of view.

The number of booming males in a reedbed is the method used to estimate how many pairs of bitterns are on a particular site as each male has a slightly different boom.

Once the females begin provisioning flights these are checked and if there are four 'in and out' flights to a particular area in a four-hour period this is regarded as confirmation of a bittern nest.

For those still waiting for a good view of a bittern, a combination of patience,careful observation and a little luck should eventually be rewarded.

The chances are improving each year as bittern numbers steadily increase.

The results from last year's joint bittern survey by the RSPB and Natural England saw 283 booming males, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year and the biggest jump in numbers since monitoring began in 1990.

There were also reports of booming males from 12 new sites and it will be exciting to see if this positive trend continues this year.

Some of the later summer migrants have started to arrive with the first honey buzzards reported back at the Wykeham Forest Raptor Viewpoint near Scarborough- three including two males were seen there last week.

An immature White-tailed eagle was seen near Commondale on the North York Moors.

There have also been several reports of singing quail so it is a good time to listen out for this bird's distinctive 'wet-mi-lips' call coming from deep within a cereal or other crop. Like the bittern the quail is much more difficult to see unless it takes flight.