YOUR BIRDING MONTH
MARSH HARRIER
It is one of the most frequently repeated facts in the pages of Bird Watching, but it needs saying again (probably). The Marsh Harrier is a rarer breeding bird in the UK than the Golden Eagle. According to the BTO/RSPB statistics, there are an estimated 440 pairs of Golden Eagle and just 400 pairs of Marsh Harrier. Indeed, the much-championed Hen Harrier’s UK breeding population is a ‘whopping’ 620 or so pairs! Marsh Harriers are scarce breeding birds.
But, if you live in places like the home of Bird Watching (Peterborough, in the Cambridgeshire fens), or across swathes of East Anglia, eastern Lincolnshire, the marshy areas of Kent, Lancashire, Dorset, Somerset and scattered parts of Scotland, you may be forgiven for thinking they are one of our commonest birds of prey. You’d be right in thinking that they are doing pretty well at the moment, but always remember that it is a privilege and a treat equivalent to eagle-watching, to lay eyes on these beautiful raptors.
Marsh Harriers do the decent thing (according to their name), and tend to hang around wetlands, particularly with decent areas of reeds. They are notably larger and chunkier than other harriers (indeed, they sometimes have to be double-checked to see if they are Buzzards), but share the slow hunting flight, wings held in a shallow V above the plane of the body and long, slim tail.
Females are visibly larger, and usually nearly all dark chocolate brown, apart from the creamy crown, nape and throat, plus the ‘shoulders’ and leading edge of the inner wing. The smaller males (like the bird on the right) can be very striking birds, with liberal splashes of pale grey in the wing and tail, rufous-brown belly and upperwing covers, and whitish (though streaked) head and shoulders. Juvenile birds resemble females, but lack the pale shoulder patches and, with close views, reveal neat buff fringing on the wings.
Early autumn is a traditional time for communal roosts to build up, usually in reedbeds or equivalent areas of tall vegetation where they feel safe and concealed. In the last hours of daylight, you can see numbers build up over the roost area, and witness a certain amount of jostling for position according to status. Go back a couple of decades, and Marsh Harriers would leave the UK for the winter. These days, though, many birds spend the whole year in the country; so autumn won’t be your last chance to see them. But, why not go and enjoy one of our rarest breeding raptors, this month?