Hen Harrier action
The weather yesterday was not great looking for photography with the strong cold northerly combining with bright sun to produce a serious amount of atmospheric distorion with only about 200m being haze free: But it was sunny so I went to have a look for Hen Harriers and it proved to be a good decision. The adult male was present along with a 2cy male that was hunting much more frequently. The male seems to adept at catching voles that he spends very little time on the wing but even the young male caught three voles in less than 90 minutes. The adult male chased off the young male a couple of times but he always came back then an unusual encounter ensued. The adult male caught a vole and moved to eat it but the young male then flew after him almost in a feed me juvenile type way but also partly in a robbing flight - this clearly angered the adult male who flew up and gave chase to the young male and several skirmishes ensued of which I managed to capture a few shown below. Later in the afternoon the two did some more sparing but then seemed to almost accept each other’s company. Fortunately the light was good and the haze a little reduced during the encounter but by 15:30 the wind picked up again and brought in some sea fret and it was time to leave.
Adult male Hen Harrier voicing his anger at the younger male
2cy male chasing the adult male carrying a vole
stunning adult male with a striking tail pattern
I read too many reviews of camera gear! So many I read say that the Canon RF 200-800 is not sharp and maybe with the R7 its not great but with my R6II it seems pretty decent to me even with the haze of yesterday
the times when the 2cy male had the upper hand or position were few
seeing encounters like these is a rare privilege
The 30 frames a second on the R6II comes into its own in brief action sequences like these
the eyes say it all - get your own voles!
classic 2cy male
this 2cy male is richly coloured on the underparts particularly obvious at a distance
Some more action this week with the adult male mobbing and being mobbed by a Carrion Crow and then another 2cy male joining in the action
Cracking full adult male
Adult male and the second 2cy male of the week a much paler and more advanced bird than the richly coloured bird in earlier images
Some real manace with foot outsretched
spinning round to drop onto a vole
The second 2cy male
and the first 2cy male for direct comparison
