Chris Hubbard, our eagle eyed Sightings Officer, continues his reports of exciting birds encountered at Stanford Reservoir:
In early September two Marsh Harriers appeared at Stanford Reservoir. Initially, the birds were quite distant, often feeding over arable farmland and the bordering hedgerows but on the 7th, one came close enough to see that it was fitted with orange wing-tags – at that point no code was read due to the distance.
On Saturday 9th September the number of Marsh Harriers had increased to an unprecedented three birds and I was able to obtain close views of them and to my surprise two of the birds had orange tags and the other was untagged - the first time ever we have had tagged birds at the site. With patience I was able to obtain the codes on both birds. I found this much easier to do when the birds rested in the trees bordering the reservoir – they were much more difficult to read when in flight.
Marsh Harrier ‘ZC’
‘ZC’ was the first to be read. This bird was ringed and tagged on the 19th June 2023 at Breydon Water, near Great Yarmouth. The bird was sexed as a female and she had two siblings, both were males. This was the first time the bird had been observed since being ringed/tagged.
Marsh Harrier ‘6A’
Whilst watching ‘ZC’ along the Leicestershire reedbed a second bird flew in and settled in a nearby tree and was immediately read as ‘6A’. This bird was ringed and tagged on the 2nd July 2023 at Welney WWT. This bird was also sexed as a female. This was the first time the bird had been observed since being ringed/tagged.
Ongoing Observations
Like many sites in the county, Marsh Harriers are often short stayers or fly-throughs but both ‘6A’ and ‘ZC’ had extended stays.‘6A’ was observed up to the 13th and ‘ZC’ up to the 19th September. As at the 21st I thought that both birds had departed. However, ‘ZC’ was then picked up again on the 29th and is still present at the time of writing this article (17th October), some 39 days after the initial sighting.
The Project
The project was started in 2011 and is run by the North West Norfolk Ringing Group, with the objective of finding out more about how or if juvenile Marsh Harriers disperse from their natal area. It is now in its 12th year and some interesting and in some cases unexpected results have already been obtained.
In 2011 the tags had an individual identifying combination of two letters or one letter and one number in White. From 2012 a combination of two letters or one letter and one number in Black on a lime green tag were used. In 2018 after all the lime green codes had been used, orange tags with Black numbers or letters were used.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Phil Littler for providing the information on both birds. More information can be found at https://www.nwnrg.co.uk/
Photo of MH in flight courtesy of B Silverman, others CH.
Chris Hubbard