A Few Hours with the Marsh Harriers

23rd May 2025

Time for another vist to see how the harriers are getting on. It was a bright sunny day and the male was enjoying the warmth and light breeze.

The female only left the nest a couple of times to collect food from the male, and bring in nest material which suggests she is sitting on eggs. Fingers crossed.

The male went off hunting a couple of times, but the rest of the time he was bringing in more nest material.

The female also brought in material when she left the nest to stretch her wings.

At this stage in the breeding cycle we live in hope of witnessing a food pass where the male flies in high with a prey item, the female leaves the nest and flies up to meet him, at which point the male drops the prey item which she catches and returns to the nest. Unfortunately, this pair don't seem to have read the rule book.

When the male flies in with food she leaves to nest, but instead of flying up to meet him, leaves the nest and flies behind some bushes where he passes her the food, so no food drop photos!!!

As I said in my last post the 1st nesting attempt had obviously failed for whatever reason and they have built a new nest. The good news is not only is the new nest closer, but the new look-out bush is also closer as shown here. Here is the male preening................

......................and generally keeping an eye on what is going on.

So far so good so let's hope they have more success this time.

Also good to have a catch-up with Kevin and Sandra.