Northern Harrier
“In the late afternoon of January 12 a Northern Harrier, aka “Marsh Hawk” was spotted hunting along the fringes of the Spurwink River.”
Through the year
Columns that mention it, by the month they were published.
Year by year
Columns that mention it each year.
In his words
All 9 passages, oldest first.
Lastly, I have added a new species to my yard bird list on November 11th - this being number 110 - with the addition of a fly over Northern Harrier aka “Grey Ghost”.
In the late afternoon of January 12 a Northern Harrier, aka “Marsh Hawk” was spotted hunting along the fringes of the Spurwink River.
On the last day of August while sauntering along the Spurwink’s Town Farm Trail (Greenbelt) I spotted a Northern Harrier and a young Peregrine Falcon hunting.
In the second week of October along the Spurwink Marsh I recorded seeing a Belted Kingfisher, a first of season Northern Harrier, a single Lesser Yellowlegs, eight Great Egrets, two Great Blue Herons and one Snowy Egret.
Other mentionables from the field include on September 6 Spurwink Marsh along Sawyer Road - while watching a Northern Harrier weave back and forth across the salt marshes I heard the shrill scream of a Red-shouldered Hawk calling aways off in a stand off old pines beyond the Pannes.
And on January 27 as snow swept across the saltmarsh a Northern Harrier drifted across the land while two male Common Goldeneyes led six females as they dove and foraged upstream from the Spurwink River Crossing.
Also, on March 29 along the Sawyer Road section of the Spurwink River I noted a flock of twenty or more Green-winged Teals, two Greater Yellowlegs and a Northern Harrier.
On September 19, along this beloved stretch of road, I watched a Northern Harrier twist and weave across the Spurwink Marsh.
Highlights included a Northern Harrier coursing low over the fields, countless Yellow-rumped Warblers, and four sparrow species: White-throated, Ipswich, Song, and Lincoln’s. Lincoln’s Sparrows are subtly elegant songbirds with finely streaked buffy chests, gray faces and delicate mustache stripes.