• Sat. Jul 6th, 2024

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Castlemartin Corse – Harriers

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In an hour or so before dusk tonight, 3 harriers showed. The female Marsh Harrier made a couple of sorties the full length of the corse. An explosion of snipe activity heralded the approach of dark, ringtail Hen Harrier that hunted down the corse before flying north. Shortly afterwards, another harrier approached from the north, flew directly over the hide and disappeared up the hill to the south. From first sight this bird looked very different in structure to the Marsh and Hen harriers being obviously slimmer and ‘lankier’ in appearance. A pale collar was clearly visible even in head on view and the pattern on the head closely resembles that of the Pallid Harrier that has been around the Gower recently. This is a different individual though – much paler in body colour and having the odd feature of 5 prominent primaries on the right wing whilst having the standard (for Pallid) 4 on the left. Potentially a Pallid x Hen hybrid?