Bittern Sweet
A song about a marsh loving bird, the American Bittern
Bittern Sweet
In fresh water marshes with bulrush and sedge
With my toes in the mud, here on the edge
I’m standing still, blending in, bending with the wind
My feathers, tawny, tan, and streaked
I sway to the beat of the grasses and reeds
Beak to the sky with my cattail friends
Here I am alone again, here I am alone
Oong-KA-choonk, oong-KA-choonk
My DNA told me, in April to go
To say adios, and fly to hellos
At night I fly in the middle of spring with moonbeams on my wings
To Pemaquid Pond in the shallows I wait
To prey on some fish and find me a mate
With bright white plumes and a sexy syrinx
I listen at dusk to hear him sing, I listen to hear him sing
Oong-KA-choonk, oong-KA-choonk
If I like him I’ll sing it too
Oong-KA-choonk, oong-KA-choonk
The chorus of the Botaurus lentiginosus
Now he’s gone and it’s time to build a nest
I will lay one egg a day in this nest of sedge
My oh my all this work is bittern, bittern sweet
Five little babes begging for frogs
I cuddle my chicks in the cold and the fog
They’ll be on their own in three to four weeks
And Oong-KA-choonk is the song they’ll sing, sing Oong-KA-choonk, sing
Oong-KA-choonk, oong-KA-choonk
I’m standing still, blending in, bending with the wind
My feathers, tawny, tan, and streaked
I sway to the beat of the grasses and reeds
Beak to the sky with my cattail friends
Here I am alone again, here I am all alone
Oong-KA-choonk, oong-KA-choonkAs we snowshoe through the woods here in the northeastern U.S., American Bitterns are in their winter stomping grounds. Some are in the southern part of the U.S. and others are in Mexico and Central America.
You can hear the actual song of the male American Bittern here on this Audubon page. Scroll down to “songs and calls” to hear one version (oong-KA-choonk) of their song. To hear another version (pump-er-lunk) and to see a male singing, go to All About Birds at Cornell University and click on “sounds”. How the sounds are labeled is up to interpretation, but as you can hear from the two examples, they have different tones. Females will call back to the males, but their songs are quieter.
To learn more about this fascinating bird, you can click on More Info on the Home page.
Thank you for listening.
I absolutely adore this, music and writing both! Thank-you so much for doing it. I bet little kids would love to chime in on the chorus.
I, too, am too introverted to do anything but read here, but I belong to a group concerned with reconciliation of people and nature, and I'd love to share this with them. Is that OK, when original music is involved?
Hi Heather, What a lovely song. I have always appreciated the American Bittern’s ability to blend in with the marsh grass while holding their neck up straight, head held high. Amusingly, it reminds me of us humans , unlike the Bittern’s keen abilities, we fail completely in trying to blend in to any nature provided background. I have been an avid reader of Jason’s wonderful and important writings for about a year now. He researches endlessly and consistently educates, we need only to show up and learn. I am just a reader, if you don’t mind may I suggest; from my observations while occasionally scrolling through Notes, I have read quite a few where someone is new to Substack and are more or less introducing themselves. For example, I am new here, I write about nature and compose songs, I would love to meet you… You get the general idea. I’m sure you’ll find a few examples if you take a moment to look. I am always surprised how many people ‘like’ and respond with a welcome.
Good luck to you !