New Year Marsh Walks

Waders take to the air

With the cold weather really taking over in the New Year, it’s the perfect time to look for birds of prey. I headed over to a spot where the vast expanses of open fields and marshes provide an ideal habitat for them and if you are prepared for a walk, you are quite often rewarded for the effort. As well as birds of prey there’s always hundreds of waders and ducks around the estuary and on the marsh lakes. There were 20+ pintails in one of those lakes which is the most I’ve seen in one place before. The first birds of prey on the scene were a kestrel and a very quick glimpse of a sparrowhawk, taking the usual stealth approach to hunting, keeping low to the ground.

Male Marsh Harrier

Lots of marsh harriers hunting all around the marsh which is always good to see. There was even a red kite quartering the fields in a very marsh harrier fashion. Not as abundant around here as they are in other parts of the country so another good find.

Barn Owl

Barn Owl flying overhead

Barn Owl after a successful hunt

Barn Owl flight sequence

One of the highlights was definitely the barn owls. I had hidden up by a fence, with the tall reeds offering some cover in front of me, watching an owl hunting in the distance through binoculars. I’m not sure if I could sense some eyes burning into the back of my head or not but something made me look behind me. I’m glad I did as there was a second owl heading straight towards me. I swapped the binoculars for my camera when it looked down at the ground and watched it as it continued to fly straight towards me. I was expecting it to change direction any second as my hiding spot was a lot more effective when the wildlife was out on the marsh, in front of me, rather than creeping up behind along the same path I had just walked along. Either I had just about managed to blend in enough or the owl didn’t register me as a threat because it preceded to continue straight towards me, making direct eye contact with the camera. It flew almost overhead, turning to take a dive in the field, just beyond the reeds in front of me to try and catch some unsuspecting vole.

I was losing light by this point so the ISO was always going to make getting any decent shots next to impossible but it was a pretty great encounter regardless.

A Male Hen Harrier hunting over the reeds

A second visit proved less fruitful as it was far too windy, both for me and the birds. It was too cold to wait around for the owls to show themselves so I took an early walk back. Fortunately there was some silver lining to braving the bad weather in the form of a distant male hen harrier, fighting the wind, in search of food.

This is a bird that I have been wanting to see for a long time. I’d seen a few ringtails over the last few years but the male had always eluded me. I knew that they were around but the marshes are pretty big so the chances of being in the right place at the right time are pretty slim. They seemed to have a knack of either turning up an hour or so after I left a spot or if there was a toss up between going to two places, the hen harrier would always choose to go to the one I decided against.

We finally bumped into one another… albeit still around 2 miles apart but I’m definitely not going to complain about not being able to get a closer shot, given how long I’ve waited just to catch a glimpse of one.

Sunset over the marsh

I briefly visited another marsh on a different evening and after watching three barn owls until the light diminished, I was presented with one of the best sunsets I’ve seen in a long while.