A Day with the Harriers at Wallasea Island

27th October 2024

I had been watching the news from Wallasea Island to see if any Short-eared Owls had arrived yet, but then came reports of two Hen Harriers, a male and a ring-tail so that was good enough for me. I arrived to a beautiful sunny day and a meteorological rarity at Wallasea Island, a flat calm day. This was because we sitting bang in the middle of a high.

There were plenty of passerines around including Stonechats, Corn Buntings and Sky Larks, but these were mostly distant so I concentrated on the job in hand - harriers. There were a couple of Marsh Harriers wafting around, both males, but kept their distance which was not helped by, would you believe in late October, heat haze!!! Anyway grabbed a couple of shots for the record.

The ring-tail Hen Harrier did appear a few times but again very distant, mainly east of the RSPB offices. However, Hen Harriers are more difficult to photograph than Marsh Harriers as they hug the ground when they are hunting and therefore disappear behind the vegetation quite frequntly and also make focussing more difficult. However, several hundred shots later I did manage to get some for the record.

Then when I was by the screen at Grass Farm Lagoon the male Hen Harrier appeared and started to quarter the ground. It is a sub-adult because of the pure white underwing, whereas a 2CY bird would have some brown markings on the underwing. It does, however, have a light brown wash on the upper parts (not visible on these photos) so possibly a 3CY.

Then it spotted something on the ground and went in for the kill, providing a nice dive sequence. Well, got to get lucky some time.

What a fun day and I am sure I will be back for more.