Sunday 8 May 2011

Mini Trip Report Pt 4 - RSPB Minsmere - Study of the Marsh Harrier

As promised, I said I would bring you some Marsh Harrier images from my recent trip to Minsmere in Suffolk.

Marsh Harrier are wonderful birds and I have watched them from many hours at Minsmere.  My favourite hide is the Bittern Hide, which is one of the closest hides to the car park.  It is raised about thirty feet above ground level, and while that is normally a problem for most hide photography, for the Marsh Harriers it is excellent. You get eye level shots with backgrounds of the reed beds.  This time if the year the reeds are still straw coloured as the new green growth hasn't reached the tops .  Give it another four weeks and the backgrounds will be totally different.  I personally prefer this colour as the complement to the subject matter.

So here are a few images I took from the trip.  While many of the views are far too too distant, you do get some close flybys and those are the ones worth waiting for.  As a result, some of these images are big crops, and of course the quality shows where it is heavily cropped.

 Wider 'enviro' shot showing the background and habitat






 All of the above shots were of the male bird


 Two previous are the female showing the colour variations


As you can soon most images are flying from right to left.  This was because the birds were flying into the wind as they were hunting, and of course it is easier to catch your subject when travelling more slowly over the ground.

If you are going to get a trip in to Minsmere soon, you will be in for some great sightings of these birds.

Martin

1 comment:

  1. Fantastic photos! I am going to Minsmere in a couple of weeks so am looking forward to my visit even more now.

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