Highland Foundation for Wildlife

BIRD 21251
DATE	NOTES
28th Aug	Departed breeding area - at Magus Muir between Cupar and St Andrews in Fife
30th Aug	Moved west to the Carsebreck Loch area between Auchterarder and Dunblane
6th Sep	Still in Carsebreck Loch area.
7th Sep	Moved south to the River Forth at Alloa and on 8th was at nearby Peppermill Dam
10th Sep	On Tullibody Inch island, in River Forth at Alloa
12th Sep	Roosted over night on Tullibody Inch island; stayed in same general area until at least 21st Sep
23rd Sep	At 6am north of Auldmuir reservoir, NW of Dalry in Ayrshire
24th Sep	North of Kingarth, southern end of the Isle of Bute - interestingly our previous satelitte tracked marsh harrier from the Tay estuary visited the Isle of Bute in 2004 and stayed from 9th to 21st August there - see 2004 migration page
26th Sep	Did not linger as at 0600 hours was at Logan Mains, half way down the Mull of Galloway in the very south-west of Scotland. Will it go to Isle of Man or Ireland?
29th Sep	At 0915 hours was on or near Copeland Island in Northern Ireland - wonder if it was seen by birders at the Bird Observatory?
2nd Oct	In open country, 20 kilometres south-east of Lisburn, south of Belfast.
4th Oct	Did not stay in Ireland, as roosting at Crymlyn Burrows, just east of Swansea in South Wales overnight 3rd/4th October. A journey of at least 333 kilometres during afternoon of 2nd and yesterday. Really interesting how she exited Ireland and returned on track for mainland Europe.
5th Oct	Late afternoon, just north of Slapton Ley on the south Devon coast, south of Dartmouth. Another good journey south, now to cross into France.
7th Oct	Early morning 65 kilometres NW at Parehame, between Honiton and Colyton in east Devon - so wandering east instead of setting off across the Channel. Thanks for an additional report - Daragh Croxson and Dick Morris saw her quartering the eastern end of Lodmoor RSPB reserve at Weymouth, Dorset at midday, before heading off east.
8th/9th Oct	Two poor quality signals with best interpretation suggesting bird is near Poole harbour
10th Oct	Thanks for an email from Jackie & Nick Hull This afternoon (Tues. 10th Oct) we had a Marsh Harrier at Holten Lee, Poole Harbour with a radio transmitter and we presume this is one of your birds. Holten Lee is a private nature reserve overlooking Lytchett Bay in Poole Harbour, we first picked her up flying from between the trees and over the water fairly close in, though we had scopes so were able to view her extremely well. She flew low for a while and then went higher towards Keysworth and out of our sight.
14th Oct	No new signals since 10th October is a bit worrying - sadly the likelihood is that this bird might have been illegally killed because no further signals were received, and there was no indication of a radio malfunction. Hen harriers in the UK suffer from illegal persecution from game-keeping interests, and it may be that marsh harriers are also killed on occasions.