{"id":1744,"date":"2010-10-08T23:10:39","date_gmt":"2010-10-08T22:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1744"},"modified":"2013-11-10T12:11:38","modified_gmt":"2013-11-10T12:11:38","slug":"marsh-harrier-over-sussex-downs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/marsh-harrier-over-sussex-downs\/","title":{"rendered":"Marsh Harrier Over Sussex Downs"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Another glorious day and I headed out to Castle Hill, a local nature reserve. The site is managed downland and home to a number of interesting plants, butterflies, kestrels and numerous other species of bird. What I wasn't expecting to see (and at first I thought it was a buzzard), was this. The shots are all hefty crops as it was some way off, and I was deep in the valley when it flew overhead.
<\/span> Marsh Harrier<\/span><\/p>\n

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That is an absolute first sighting for me, and I needed help on the identification. Apparently it's an immature (2nd year) male marsh harrier. I've occasionally seen reports of them in Sussex, but not in this area. It brings my local sightings of raptors (excluding escaped exotics and hybrids) up to eight: kestrels, sparrowhawks, peregrines, hobbies, buzzards, red kites, short eared owl and marsh harrier. <\/p>\n

Of course there were other birds, including kestrels, and this charming little goldfinch. The bump near its eye is a tick.
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The goldfinch was near a dew pond where, finally, I got some decent shots of common darters. I've missed them this year, but there were a fair number around the pond. This one was eating a greenbottle!
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I mentioned that Castle Hill is a haven for butterflies. There were several meadow browns, and a red admiral flew past; but the photo is of one I'd not seen before. It's a small copper; and technically, that's two 'firsts' in one day.
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\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, with the exception of the two darter shots which were taken with the EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens .<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,980,992,77],"tags":[1144,1148,211,666],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-butterfly-insects-2","category-dragonfly","tag-butterfly","tag-dragonfly","tag-goldfinch","tag-marsh-harrier","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t