Yesterday, Alan saw 4 marsh harriers together, three in the air and one perched. Caroline's analysis of her photos confirms that we have had 5 marsh harriers present across November (following on from the 4 in September-October) - 2 distinctively marked adult females (3CY+ types) and 3 1CY birds..
Today I saw 4 individuals - the two adult females, and 2 1CY birds - one ♂ one ♀. Not having seen all 3 1CYs together, not sure of the sex of the third one. With the cold SE wind they were typically flying high and fast to the Starman's Hall end and then beating back upstream slowly into the wind low over the reedbed, occasionally coming close enough for a half-decent photo. At one point the two females were buzzed by a female merlin while flying E - the merlin flew up out of some willows, then proceeded to hunt on its own. Over the last three months we have recorded 9 raptor species on the Corse - marsh, ringtail hen, red kite, buzzard, peregrine, kestrel, merlin (♂ and ♀), sparrowhawk and goshawk.
Fewer ducks on display today, but the juv whooper was still in the same spot with its adoptive family of mutes. The hide is increasingly littered with starling spare parts, thanks to the barn owl, with which Caroline had a close encounter the other day.
