There has been quite a lot of bird of prey activity over the past few weeks. Most recently our Marsh harriers have very entertaining. Yesterday morning a new female arrived at Radipole which sparked a few battles. The resident male spent pretty much the whole afternoon and evening mobbing the new bird. The resident female also joined in briefly which caused the male to start performing an amazing ‘sky dance’. Sky dancing is performed by males to show off to the females. It consists of lots of dives and loop the loops from quite a height. Here are some pictures of the male mobbing the new female.
Last week saw a few Red kites flying over Weymouth. This bird pictured below was particularly interesting as it has wing tags. The colours signify that this bird was hatched in the east midlands in 2001.
As spring progresses we are hoping get a glimpse of an Osprey flying and hopefully a hobby or two. These are both migrants which have to fly over the south coast to get to their breeding grounds. Hopefully some will fly over Weymouth airspace. There has already been Osprey has over very near to Weymouth so fingers crossed the next one will be a little closer!