Radipole Lake RSPB Reserve
Tuesday December 10th 2013
Lots of action from the marsh harriers recently with at least one of the breeding pair sat in front of the hide pretty much any time you look.
Today it was the female, an unusually well-marked bird.
Last week I got this view of her partner, in much better light.
As explained in the blog for Nov 3rd this bird is far more red and brown than most males.
Lately there has been a normal-coloured male about as well,
I assumed the female would chase it off, but instead she watched it flying about and stated calling loudly.
This could have been to alert her usual male, but as he wasn't about at the time I suspect she was just making sure that the new male had noticed her.
I haven't yet managed to film this smart new male yet but here's a brief and distant shot of a similar bird filmed at RSPB Ham Wall last spring.