Sky Dancers

Hickling Broad is the realm of the marsh harriers says BEN GARROD, NWT ambassador.

- Ben Garrod

WHAT SEEMS like a long, long time ago now, I was on a train going from Yarmouth to Norwich... you know the one I mean, it’s either so cold you’re sure you are developing the first signs of hypothermia by the time you hit Acle or the heating is up so high that it looks like a world record attempt for the biggest group striptease. Well anyway, I was on the train and we were passing through the Breydon estuary area... a beautiful spot, filled with numerous species of duck, as well as herons, egrets, reedlings and Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) that flit past the window too fast to identify.

The train trundled along and it stopped at the wonderfully remote Berney Arms station. As we slowly pulled away, I saw something that has always stayed with me... a beautiful big bird of prey striking a coot at full speed, just at the edge of some reeds in one of the wide dykes that surround the fields.

I had the most incredible view and the bird (the one doing the killing not the one being killed) didn’t seem bothered by the presence of the train at all. The other bird had more immediate problems, I’m guessing. As we passed the avian attack, the last I saw was the frantic flapping and scrabbling of the coot die away. A little awe-struck, I sat back into my seat and smiled, revelling in my first encounter with a Norfolk marsh harrier.