The cold weather brings the bitterns out of the reeds to try to find food at Attenborough nature reserve in Nottinghamshire. Rare bitterns are bouncing back, with the highest number of “booming” males recorded since the 19th century. The elusive heron-like birds have been helped by European conservation measures that have supported the restoration and creation of wetland habitat they rely on, the RSPB said. Prized as a medieval banquet dish and hit by hunting and the loss of its reedbed habitat as wetlands were drained, bitterns became extinct in the UK in 1886

Photograph: Jack Perks/Rex Features