Friday 2 February 2018

Marsh Harrier

Immature male. An individual with barring in the remiges.


2nd cy female. This individual is moulting in to what could become a very dark bird?



Juvenile and a 2nd cy female


A juvenile dodging a shot gun

Juvenile in light rain


Juvenile, 20th September. A very dark individual with just a small orange spot on it's nape. I have no idea if birds like this turn in to dark morphs or whether they represent the darker end of western birds.



Another immature male with barring in it's remiges. 20th September. An Eastern Marsh Harrier was loosely claimed during this autumns count based generally on the fact that it had barring in it's remiges. 

Immature male, 24th September.

Female, 24th September



2nd cy female, 24th September. A very dark bird with juvenile P10 remaining. It had a small yellowish nape patch.

There was a strange bar running through the middle of the tail which I guess could be a fault bar.


2nd cy female, 25th September. A few juvenile tail feathers and secondaries remain and P10 is just growing.

Female

Juvenile, 28th September

Juvenile, 28th September. A well marked individual with a large carpal surround.

A juvenile with what appears to be abnormal feet? It looked like one toe on each foot had exceptionally long claws? 




Same as below


Same as below


Same bird below. The two different sides of a male marsh Harrier can look so different.











Same as below




This was an odd individual which appeared midway between a dark morph and a normal male. The grey in the remiges was bright and extensive and the black trailing edge intermediate in thickness. I guess it could just have been a dark western male but I presume light morphs breed with dark morphs?



Same as above. It showed extensive pale grey in the upperwing unlike dark morphs.


Same bird below


Same bird below. Very different when seen from below.

Same bird below



This was the intermediate bird from further up page showing the extent of grey in the upperwing.