A day in the marshes

A Male Marsh Harrier

I was recently back in the UK (East Kent) and spent a couple of days at one of my favourite wildlife locations: Stodmarsh Nature Reserve near Canterbury. 

Although my visit coincided with a 'quiet' time of year in early October, it was still great to be out in nature and whilst subjects were 'thin on the ground', the weather was kind and my spirit was bouyed by the open spaces.

As usual, I arrived just before sunrise and was on my way to one of the four hides that exist on this reserve. Although the light was very low and the mist was still hanging over the reed beds, I was delighted when a Male Hen Harrier suddenly emerged from the reeds and headed towards my location. Whilst the following image is far from good, it was one of those occasions, when a 'bad' photograph, is better than no photograph!

The Hen Harrier is an iconic bird and rarely seen.

When I arrived at the hide, I was lucky to find it empty and took up my favourite position, which would become my 'seat' for the next 7 hours. It's strange how we all have our favourite positions and a bit like 'getting your towell on your preferred sun lounger' when on holiday!

Conditions were still far from ideal, so I set up my gear and enjoyed my pre-packed breakfast, whilst waiting for the light to improve.

Happy to be back in my office!

One of the first birds to arrive, was a Reed Bunting and as the sun started to rise, it gave a beautiful 'glow' to the open water and surrounding reeds. Although this 'golden hour' quickly disappears, it gives a wonderful opportunity to capture some lovely images.

Reed Bunting

Coot

Cormorant drying its wings in the morning sun.

As the Cormorant departed, it were the Lapwing and Teal that were next to arrive and the light really exposed their wonderfully colourful feathers









You never know what might surprise you in nature, but I certainly was not expecting this Squirrel to put in an appearance!

It hung around for a few minutes, before making a hasty escape from the Marsh Harriers, who would have definitely invited him for lunch!



Thankfully, the Squirrel made its departure before the raptors came up from the reedbeds, but they were certainly in hunting mood and gave me some nice images, whilst flying low over the  reeds. 

There are 5 breeding pairs of Marsh Harriers at Stodmarsh and both male and female birds showed strongly during the day.

Of particular interest, was this female, who had sadly experienced a broken leg. This break can clearly be seen in the following images and the lack of blood supply had shrivelled up her talon. - Fortunately, it did not seem to be having a detrimental effect on her and hopefully, she will live a full and normal life!

You can clearly see the 'clean' break in her right leg.

The 'total' break has cut of the blood supply to this leg.

Hopefully, she will survive and bring new life to the marshes. 

Here is another male and  female who call this place home. - When you think that the total UK population of Marsh Harriers stands at around 600-700 pairs, we are indeed priveleged to have 5 breeding pairs on this reserve!








Herons, Egrets and Cormorants abound at Stodmarsh and regularly drop in to the myriad of pools for a quick snack. Here are a range of images of these graceful birds taken during my visits.

Herons






Great White Egret




Cormorants






Of course, you will all know that my favourite bird is the Kingfisher and luckily for me, they turned up on the perches in front of the hide to entertain me. I literally have thousands of images of Kingfishers, so whilst many are happy for a simple Kingfisher sitting on a stick, i'm afraid that unless it has breakfast or lunch in its beak, I don't bother taking a photo......so here are some shots from lunchtime!

The first series is a sequence from one catch which ended in failure, whilst following images are from a range of different birds. 

A good sized catch.

Time to stun the poor fish.

The bird uses the perch to smash the fish against.

That's a colouful catch!

One more battering should do it.

It's never a good idea to let go of lunch.

Those fish scales are slippery.

 Fish escapes, but doubt that it survived!


and a few more.....





Here comes another food pellet of fish scales and bones!








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Cheers

Glynn





























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