Harry

A male marsh harrier seen quartering the Somerset Levels earlier this morning in the hope of finding some luckless smaller creature to eat.

This was my first trip back to the Levels for nearly 2 months, so quite a bit had changed in that time.  Most of the little warblers have migrated southwards in search of  sunnier conditions, and some of the reeds have now been cut back.  The starlings are slowly starting to become more prevalent and some of the waterfowl that overwinter here have arrived.

The weather conditions were not due to be great.  Mainly dry first thing, but with a fair amount of high and mid cloud that would reduce the available light.  By mid morning stronger winds would bring heavy rain, so I definitely planned to be away before lunch time.

The harriers were still very much in evidence and I was lucky enough to get a reasonably good shot of this male.  I would have liked to be closer, but even with the crop it is not too bad, all things considered.

By 10am the threatened wind had really picked up and with the reeds blowing around every which way, I packed up and came on home for a second breakfast before the deluge started.