Marsh Harrier

With reports of Ospreys not far to the  north, east and west of us today , hopes were high this afternoon when Bun and I arrived at Black Hole Marsh/Colyford Common to wait for one to fly over our patch. I haven't seen an Osprey on Patch since September 2008 (the bird pictured at the foot of this blog)  There have been a few but I've managed to miss them all. In fact I haven't seen an Osprey at all, anywhere, since then! I still haven't :-( What we did see, however was a Marsh Harrier, coincidently the first I've seen on patch for almost two years! It hung around for about an hour, periodically hunting over the Axe Marsh and Colyford Marsh reed beds before finally tiring of the constant harassment from the local crows. It flew off high south, fortunately not before it was seen by most who came down to see it. The three gorgeous Curlew Sandpipers were still on Black Hole Marsh, and a Little Ringed Plover was new on Colyford Marsh..

A couple of naff snaps of the Marsh Harrier from the 'super' super-zoom. It didn't do too badly all things considered.

Also today's addition to the'Naught Birders' series...

Some 'naughty birders' are serial offenders, so it seems. ;-)