Harriers on Marsh and Moss

I had a morning meeting with NE and the RSPB at Freckleton Marsh today so I decided to get there an hour earlier and have a wander around the marsh. It was a cracking morning weather wise with clear skies and no wind. First birds were a group of 4 Stock Doves and then I had a further 2.

 Freckleton Marsh

I put a couple of Brown Hares up as I walked round. They were nice to see and at least they hadn't been got by those bastards with their 'long dogs'! A few Mipits, Alba Wags and 2 Wheatears fed on the spoil from the recently created ditches.

I had 3 Snipe, 4 Lapwings and 27 Goldfinch fly over and a female Kestrel hunted over the marsh. As I got to the southern part of the marsh I could see a flock of 31 Black-tailed Godwits feeding in a recently cut field on Grange Farm. Two Grey Herons and 14 Teal were feeding in the main dyke that cuts across the marsh and 3 Curlew fed on the marsh itself.

As I wandered round inspecting the ditches with AG and HG, AG picked up a juvenile Marsh Harrier being mobbed by Jackdaws. We watched for a couple of minutes but unfortunately it was flying away from us so we didn't get particularly good views.

The ditches are nicely filling with water now

In the afternoon I called at Rawcliffe Moss to drop some seed off and afterwards I had a wander over the moss. Over 100 Swallows were feeding under and flocking on the telegraph poles in the 'west' field and I picked a few more up with House Martins on my walk round.

 Swallow

A few Linnets, Goldfinch and Tree Sparrow flew over calling but not in any numbers. As I headed up the '97' Hedge I had a 2nd summer male Marsh Harrier flying over a patch of wild bird seed. As I climbed up on to this area it had vanished! Amazing how such a large bird can disappear so quickly.

The rest of my walk was very quiet except for a single Grey Partridge and Willow and Sedge Warbler in the plantation. I could see some rain coming in so I made a hasty retreat back to my car.