Marsh Harriers strike out across Europe

Phil Littler and John Middleton (North West Norfolk Ringing Group) write:

On 5th February 2014, the first live British-ringed Marsh Harrier was sighted in Spain by Javier Elorriaga, along with Yeray Seminario, Juan Martin and Ramon Navarro. The wing-tagged male Marsh Harrier (BN - green pin on map below) was ringed as a nestling in North Norfolk on 3rd August 2013 by the North West Norfolk Ringing Group. This bird was seen at La Janda, near Cadiz, an area of flooded rice fields, which has a high concentration of Marsh Harriers in winter. It was then seen again on 8th February by Geoff Gowlett who sent us the photo below. BN was first seen by Alex Colorado on 9th December 2013 approximately four kilometers from the latest observations.

Male Marsh Harrier BN. The sex was determined using the Dutch foot span measurement method, which this Norfolk project have championed in the UK (c) Geoff Gowlett

Prior to this only two British-ringed Marsh Harriers had been recovered in Spain; one ringed in Lincolnshire and the other in Suffolk, both found dead in 1991.

Subsequently, we received a report of a second Marsh Harrier (LB - red pin on map below) from Suffolk that had been wing-tagged in the same project. It was seen by Juan M Perez-Garcia on 13th Januar 2014 at Parc Natural El Hondo, Spain, a site that is both a RAMSAR site and a Special Protection Area (SPA) for birds.

Previously, on Christmas Day 2012, a report came in of a wing tagged bird near Lisbon, Portugal (AP - yellow pin on map above). This represented the first live sighting of a British-ringed Marsh Harrier in Portugal, and only the second ever recovered there.

AP, a female, was ringed in July 2011 at Sculthorpe Moor, Norfolk, and was seen near Aerodromo de Leziria, a small airfield used for aerial crop spraying of the extensive rice fields in the area. We know this female survived its return migration because in April 2013, she was photographed coming in off the North Sea at Spurn, Humberside.

On 11th December 2013 Green DX, ringed in June 2013 near Haddiscoe, was reported from Belgium by Frank van de Velde who photographed it at De Blankaart Nature Reserve, another first for a British-ringed harrier to Belgium.

DX with it's new wing tags - by Alison Allen

Marsh Harrier DX - by Frank Van de Velde

Unconfirmed, but 99% sure, was a distant sighting in Senegal on 24th January 2013 by a French Ornithologist Jean Francois Blanc who was studying Montagu's Harriers. He saw a green wing-tagged Marsh Harrier who thought that the markings were black OO. This was rather disappointing as OO has not been used but CC has; was it that bird? It would have been the first recovery of a British-ringed Marsh Harrier in Senegal. Jean also observed two Belgian wing-tagged birds.

Not only exciting foreign recoveries were being received, but Marsh Harriers that had been wing tagged in this collaborative project were also being reported from as far as the Loch of Strathbeg near Aberdeen, to the Dale Peninsula in Wales, Burton Mere in Cheshire and the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

More details about the Norfolk wing tagging project can be found here.

London bus Arctic Skuas and an exceptional Marsh Harrier

Recoveries of Arctic Skuas in the southern hemisphere are rather unusual, with the furthest south being five reports of birds found in South Africa. The map below shows where our Arctic Skuas have been found, taken from the BTO's online ringing report.

So whilst the report of one picked up sick in Plettenburg Bay, in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, on 8th December was notable, the fact that another was found dead less than 10km away on 24th December is quite remarkable. One can only wonder what weather conditions had caused these birds to be found so close to each other so far from home.

Even more bizarre is that both of these birds were ringed as chicks on Foula, Shetland. These weren't unfortunate lost immatures bird either, having been ringed in 1993 and 1995!

Of equal note was the report of a wing-tagged Marsh Harrier in Portugal on Christmas Day. Seen alive and well, this Norfolk-ringed bird (seen just after ringing below) is just the second to be 'recovered' in Portugal, following a Suffolk-ringed bird found dead there in 1986. Check out where others have been found online.

Thanks to Phil Littler for the harrier news and photo of the team in action.

Kent Marsh Harrier wing tagging project

As a follow up post on the previous post Tim Ball writes:

For a number of years we have been monitoring and ringing breeding Marsh Harriers and a group of watchers have been carrying out co-ordinated monthly counts of the winter Harrier roosts which frequently contain both Hen and Marsh Harrier. No-one really knows whether some or all of the local breeding population stay for the winter or whether the breeding birds move out and different birds visit for the winter. Despite ringing over 150 chicks we have had very few recoveries but even these give a snap-shot of the birds’ movements with records from Cambridgeshire, Cornwall and France.

In 2009 Rod Smith and Swale Wader Group started a wing tagging project in an attempt, amongst other things, to establish the extent of the link between the breeding and winter populations of Marsh Harriers. Ten birds were tagged in 2009 (white tags on both wings) and due to a significant increase in effort and some great help from other Harrier watchers we've tagged 28 in 2010 - 25 on Sheppey (blue on the right wing) and 3 in the Stour valley (red on the right wing).


This autumn and winter we have had a good run of reports showing just how mobile these birds can be. Blue 13 was ringed in June 2010 and seen twice on the Isle of Wight on 15 August, rather than head over to the continent it went north and was reported at Frampton Marsh, Lincolnshire on 14 September. We’ve also had reports from Essex (at least 4 different birds), one in London, and Blue 30 was in north east Lincolnshire in early September. Blue 14 has been seen back on Sheppey in the last few days after an October excursion to the Dungeness area. No less than 4 different birds have been seen in the Strumpshaw Fen area - including Blue 36 which been there from 14 September to at least 28 January.


Full details of the project are on the Swale Waders web site – www.swalewaders.co.uk, it’s too early to draw many conclusions but as you can see we’re already getting some interesting results.

Thanks to Tim Ball and Martin Beach for the photos.