Western
Marsh Harrier is a common winter visitor to wetland areas of the Eastern
Province with a large number wintering at Sabkhat Al Fasl near Jubail. Although
the species is common you very rarely get close enough to them to take photographs
when they are on the ground as they fly long before you can get anywhere near
them. As a result the only real way to photograph them is to try to do so when
they are flying. As they spend most of the time hunting over reed beds this is
difficult as the camera finds it hard to lock onto the bird due to the fact the
reed beds also attract the cameras attention and it regularly focuses here
instead of the bird. I am quite an expert in getting out of focus shots of the
harriers but last weekend Phil Roberts and I stayed for some time in an area
where six or seven birds were quartering a reed bed. As a result we both took a
few nice photos of the birds and were happy with our efforts.
