On July 1st 1972 I saw my first ever Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus at Walberswick in Suffolk, a site that was to hold a magnetic fascination for me over the ensuing three years spent at UEA. With its wealth of wintering raptors including seeing on November 10th 1974 a total of 11 Rough-legged Buzzards in the air at one time the site was a constant draw for the UEA Student Union van. Marsh Harriers were a very rare bird in those days with breeding confined to the east Suffolk reedbeds and it was a few years later before I saw one in Lincolnshire. By the early 1980’s Marsh Harriers were a still scarce but expected spring migrant on the inner Humber and my fascination with the species increased markedly from the late 1980’s as prospecting birds showed the first signs of breeding behaviour. From 1993 I have monitored the breeding population around the south bank of the Humber estuary logging adults and fledged young in an ongoing study that showed a population reaching a peak of 23 males and 25 females in 2012 when 42 young fledged since when numbers and breeding success have varied annually reaching an all time high of 27 males and 28 females fledging 52 young in 20. The study area covers about 420 square kilometres but as a habitat specialist most of the breeding birds are confined to a small number of suitable reedbed locations.

These pages include some discussion on ageing and sexing birds based on 40 years experience and particularly aided by the advent of digital photography, some information on my breeding bird studies and observations of behaviour as well as a selection of my favourite images taken over the last 15 years in digital format.

In the discussions and sets of images that accompany this section I will frequently refer to Flight Identification of Raptors of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East by Dick Forsman (Bloomsbury Press) as this is the standard text on raptor identification. References will be Forsman.