How marsh harriers are soaring to new heights
I REALLY, really believed I had seen a marsh harrier in the wild, until I saw one the other week.
In my head they were quite small birds, then there was one flying above a reedbed and this was no merlin or kestrel, it was big.
Marsh harriers can grow to just under two feet from bill to tail, with a four-foot wingspan, weighing in at up to 1.5lbs.
I gasped as this magnificent bird of prey flew just above the top of the reeds then dipped down out of view.
It was soon up again still looking for prey, marsh harriers feed on frogs, small mammals and birds, such as moorhen and coot. While we often hear that marsh harriers are generally seen in East Anglia, Somerset and the South East, I was watching this one over Lancashire and we see them on the mosslands of Salford, Wigan Flashes and Lunt Meadows in Merseyside.
Marsh harriers are famous for their wheeling and tumbling, mid-air courtship displays where male and female partners lock talons. They do nest in large reedbeds, hence their visits to the reedbed carpet at Wigan Flashes and sightings over Lunt.
The bird has started to appear in the north west after an amazing recovery in the UK. In 1971 there was just one pair left in East Anglia, now we have more than 400 pairs across our green and pleasant land. It is great to see them spending the whole year here, being joined by migrants in April who head off to Africa in October.
The marsh harrier is the largest of the harriers – I should have done my research. It creates a distinctive V-shape in the air by holding its wings up. Females are chocolate brown with a golden yellow crown and throat. Males have a brown back, gingery belly, pale head and neck and long, grey wings with black tips. How can you not like them?
It is good to know that conservationists, like the Wildlife Trust, are now working with farmers and land owners to ensure this magnificent bird is protected and we are improving habitats, like our vitally important reedbeds.
And larger birds of prey are returning to our region. Marsh harriers, peregrines, buzzards and short-eared owls are being joined by hen harriers and red kites.
In fact, after a couple of disastrous years, I have just been told that three pairs of hen harriers bred in the north west this year. It was actually five birds, with one husband having two wives.
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