A "possible" bittern in Bosherston Lakes area and other winter observations

Today a local regular Bosherton Lakes fisherman came into my office puzzled by a live, large streaky brown heron-like bird he had seen this morning, not at the lakes but on the roadside verge near Coed Melyn (St Petrox)! He described the bird pretty well as being large and heron-like but more or less brown all over with streaky markings - noted on the breast. It had a substantial/stout/straight, yellow-ish brown beak. He thought it might be some kind of "brown heron" species. He is of course familiar with all the normal lake birds including the local herons. He had a quick flick through my office bird book and immediately thought "bittern" seemed to fit his bird most closely.

If it had been on the edge of the reed bed I would have had no doubt, but along side the road on the verge next to a hedge is a bit unusual for this species! If it was a bittern, I wonder if might have been disturbed from the stream valley below St Petrox, or perhaps stunned by a vehicle during the stormy weather the night before? We may never know, but he said that he met a birder with a camera near the lake who went off in search of it to try and photograph it - so was it seen by anyone else I wonder? I could not relocate anything when I checked.

Although the worst of the freezing weather may be over, I have had reports of more than 60 redwings being found dead on the beach areas around Tenby area over a 48 hr period by someone who regularly walks the dog there (source Maria Evans). There have been similar high death rates reported in the news in similar locations along the Somerset an Devon coastline. The theory is that they are seeking water to drink and with the ground being frozen are drinking seawater which, of course, eventually kills them. Anne Bunker (a CCW marine biologist) the other day witnessed a song thrush prizing off a boulder, a quite hard-shelled winkle on the beach in Angle Bay, and apparently smashing and opening it successfully! I wonder how often they do this - perhaps they were finding it difficult to locate hibernating frozen in terrestrial snails? Hopefully the thrush found a suitable freshwater supply to follow up with!