A collaboration with the North West Norfolk ringing group enabled us not only to gain experience of a species that we've never had the privilege to ring before, but also to get the birds wing tagged so that it is possible to identify the birds without recording the metal ring code. Marsh Harriers are known to travel widely and we look forward to receiving reports of the wing tagged birds in the future.
The nest was first discovered on April 17th and since that time the Norfolk Rivers Trust, the land owner and work being undertaken at the site has avoided causing disturbance to the nesting Marsh Harriers. Not long after we notified the trust about this nest a second was discovered a short distance away. Observations at a distance have shown this to be a site with a polygamous male bring food to females at both nests. The second nest is much less advanced than this one.
The toe span method was used to sex the nestlings, very important since male and female take F and G rings respectively. We were shown by the ringers who first developed the technique and used the method that was eventually adopted into the ringing scheme as the method to use
Ringed under schedule 1 licence. Many thanks to NWNRG for their help.
