A scarce breeder in the UK, numbers are very difficult to estimate as the birds are so secretive. However, that is their natural behaviour and they will
occasionally come to the edge of a reedbed and appear in the open, regardless of human prescence. However this is very hit and miss, I once saw a bird at Frampton, went to get my camera about fifty yards away,
and the bird wasn't seen again by anyone. It breeds across much of Europe, but records decline going east, whether that reflects the true position is open to conjecture. Most birds seen are migrants, it being
assumed to winter in Africa. All the shots here were taken at Titchwell, there is a gap of some thirty years, although it used to be almost annual in autumn.
