Awesome harrier roost this evening with no less that 19 marsh and 4 hen present at dusk. Most of the birds were over the Thornham side with 10 female and a male present, the rest were in the main reserve reedbed. The first ringtail bird arrived soon after we started at 5pm and went into the saltmarsh and roosted fairly quickly. A 2nd ringtail soon arrived followed by a male over the grazing marsh pool and they both headed towards Thornham Point and dropped on the saltmarsh. At about 5:30 a 4th ringtail arrived and spent most of its time grappling with the marsh harrier group when the male re-appeared and headed east into the main reserve reedbed. By 6:20 all the birds had gone into roost.

Unfortunatley there was no sign of the pallid harrier that had been seen in the morning near Brancaster and apparently over the reserve.

A late swallow, sparrowhawk and kingfisher added further interest to the count.