Sunday 3 January 2016

Marloes Mere and The Gann

A brief trip to both late on today. At Marloes, a couple of gadwall, a fine view of a merlin repeatedly climbing and stooping on a finch sized bird that got away after a tense couple of minutes. The merlin then sat on the northern hide roof looking for its next target. As I came away a very dark raptor with long wings drifted south towards the coast and out of sight. I suspect it was a marsh harrier but, although I was looking for signs to confirm this I could see no lighter tone on head, the wings were not held in the typical harrier V and there was a hint of a concave shape to the tail. I'll stick with marsh harrier but if a black kite turns up in the near future it may have been this bird.

A very brief look at the Gann - very quiet; one goldeneye on the ponds, a guillemot and three great crested grebe in the bay.
(David O)