Montagu’s Harrier & Pallid Harrier

NEAR THREATENED

Circus pygargus & Circus macrourus

Yenkathala/ Ramnathgudpalle Grasslands, Telangana

Once again I venture into the Yenkathala/ Enkathala grasslands, home to as many as 191 bird species and numerous wildlife species like the Indian Grey Mongoose. In winter these spectacular grasslands host some beautiful migrants - the Montagu’s & Pallid Harriers. These migrant harriers fly from Russia and Eastern Asian countries traveling over 5,000 kilometers to winter here in the dry sub-humid type of grasslands which cover almost the entirety of peninsular India except the Nilgiris. One sees thorny bushes like the Acacia catechu or Khair as it is known in Hindi, Mimosa, Zizyphus (Ber) and sometimes the fleshy Euphorbia, along with low trees of Anogeissus letifolia or Axle Wood, Soymida febrifuga - the Indian Redwood - and other deciduous species. Sehima (grass) which is more prevalent on gravel is about 27% of the cover and Dichanthium (grass) which flourishes on level soil is almost 80% of the coverage

The winter weather in Telangana is cold with a mild sun, but now as it warms these grasslands are bathed in a golden hue especially during sunrise and sunset. The long stalks of grass sway dreamily in the cold, soaking up the sun and a peaceful silence reigns. Slowly the faint, but interminable chirping of birds permeates and breaks the silence with a not so strong wind unobtrusively rustling through the long grass. Butterflies start to flutter, dainty and somewhat ethereal, dragonflies & damselflies hover, fiercely red & floating with intent. These are the base of the pyramid that sustains the cycle of life on these grasslands.

Yenkathala/ Enkathala Grasslands

About 60 kilometers from the capital city of Hyderabad in Telangana lie the Yenkathala or Enkathala grasslands. Apart from the multitude of birds and winter migrants, the rare Indian Grey Wolf has also been spotted here along with a number of foxes. The dry deciduous forests ecoregion of the central Deccan Plateau covers much of the state, including Hyderabad. The characteristic vegetation is woodlands of Hardwickia binata and Albizia amara. Over 80% of the original forest cover has been cleared for agriculture, timber harvesting, or cattle grazing, but large blocks of forest can be found in the Nagarjuna Sagar - Srisailam Tiger Reserve and elsewhere. The more humid Eastern Highlands moist deciduous forests cover the Eastern Ghats in the eastern part of the state. The Central Deccan forests have an upper canopy at 15–25 meters, and an understory at 10–15 meters, with little undergrowth.

Grasslands are natural carbon sinks and therefore crucial to the global carbon cycle due to their high rates of productivity, enhanced carbon sequestration rates & geographical extent keeping global temperatures more or less in balance. They are also breeding grounds for many migratory and endangered species like the Indian Grey Wolf of which only about 3,000 are left in the wild. It is a common response from people to think forests when green cover is mentioned but grasslands are of equal import. These open natural ecosystems urgently need attention and government initiatives for protection and conservation. In Telangana, grasslands are located in the districts of Vikarabad, Nizamabad, Khammam, Siddipet and Nalgonda. The wildlife in these fragile ecosystems today face numerous threats like hunting, spread of the canine distemper virus which affects foxes, wolves & several other species, rabies from feral dogs and most crucially, habitat loss.

I have photographed these harriers before near Kumbhargaon, a nondescript village in the Satara district to the south of Bhigwan, a quaint, small and rugged town on the border of the Pune and Solapur districts in Maharashtra, in India. During its mild winters, Kumbhargaon, Bhigwan and its surrounding areas become the home of countless migratory birds making it the “Bharatpur of Maharashtra”. The area around Bhigwan and the River Bhima is vast and unique with diverse habitats ranging from the shallow wetland ecosystem of the Ujni backwaters to the surrounding rich farmlands and dry deciduous scrub forest with interspersed grasslands. Read about these harriers from Bhigwan and Kumbhargaon.

It was a beautiful afternoon on the grasslands of Yenkathala or Enkathala when I reached the location I’d worked out with the help of some friends. The sun was still high but pleasant and bright. I’d reached early as planned and wanted to get into position before the harriers started to fly around. The idea was to identify the general area the harriers were frequenting and stay put there, hidden as much as possible and wait for them to relax and perch near me.

I’d seen a tweet showing some local birders driving their cars all over the grasslands. It is unfortunate that people who love birds - “birders” I think is the correct term - have no respect for the habitat and prioritise “photography“ rather than the bird and its habitat. And to be honest I do not quite understand the concept of chasing the bird. I have found it practically impossible to get any half decent photos or videos of birds when they are chased. But when I have waited for the bird or animal - they have always come close. Also I spend a little time studying the behaviour and natural instincts of the bird or animal and take into consideration the habitat, which has always helped me get really close to my subjects and/or they have approached close and helped me get beautiful photos. Anyway I doubt if my talking about it will change anything :) especially since this habit of twitching is now more prevalent than ever before with the sole objective being who can get the “most close” or who can get a “head on shot” or who can get a “flight shot” etc etc. What is the point of these objectives? Facebook likes? Instagram followers? Or is it a genuine love for wildlife and concern for the fast disappearing habitats. By the way this practice is not restricted to India, I have seen this and much worse across multiple locations I have photographed at through out Asia Pacific.

Onto these lovely harriers.

The harriers are any of the several species of diurnal hawks sometimes placed in the subfamily Circinae of the bird of prey family Accipitridae. They characteristically hunt by flying low over open ground, feeding on small mammals, reptiles, or birds. The young of the species are sometimes referred to as ring-tail harriers. They are distinctive with long wings, a long narrow tail, the slow and low flight over grasslands and skull peculiarities. The harriers are thought to have diversified with the expansion of grasslands and the emergence of C4 grasses about 6 to 8 million years ago during the Late Miocene and Pliocene.

Montagu’s Harrier

The genus Circus was introduced by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1799. Most harriers are placed in this genus. The word Circus is derived from the Ancient Greek kirkos, referring to a bird of prey named for its circling flight (kirkos, "circle"), probably the hen harrier. The name harrier is thought to have been derived either from Harrier (dog), or by a corruption of harrower, or directly from harry. Ring-tail is an informal term used by birders for the juveniles and females of several harrier species when seen in the field and not identifiable to an exact species. Ring-tail harriers include the juveniles and females of Montagu's Harrier (Circus pygargus), Hen harrier (Circus cyaneus), and the Pallid harrier (Circus macrourus).

The Montagu's harrier (Circus pygargus) is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier family. Its common name commemorates the British naturalist George Montagu. It is a lightly built hawk - slim, medium-sized, long-winged bird of prey - with rather narrow and somewhat tapered wings. It favours heathland, grassland, arable fields & marshes. It is mainly seen in flight, quartering fairly low with wings raised in shallow V; their flight is rather buoyant. It has a long tail, is smaller than a buzzard, and has more pointed wings than the similar hen harrier.

The male is a pale gray overall with black wingtips and can be confused with a gull but there is a narrow black bar on their upper wing. Compared with other harriers this species has characteristic black bands along the secondaries, both above and below the wing and rusty streaks on belly and flanks. The female can be differentiated from the Hen Harrier by their narrower wings and more buoyant flight while the juvenile is a bright rusty below. Some individuals are very dark overall. In the Pallid Harrier, from the first chapter, the males lack the black wing bars and rusty traces on the underparts of their Montagu's counterparts, while the Pallid females and juveniles average far paler in the face.

A melanistic form occurs regularly in this species. In this form the male is much darker than usual, with a black head, brownish black above and grey underparts. The melanistic female is entirely chocolate brown except for grey flight feathers. Partially melanistic morphs can also be found and I think I recorded one late in the evening towards the end of my video.

The Montagu's harrier has a particularly graceful flight, with powerful and elegant wingbeats which give an impression of buoyancy and ease. In true harrier fashion it searches the countryside, flying low, and generally holds its wings with a marked positive dihedral.

Read more detail in my blog of the Montagu’s Harrier from Kumbhargaon.

Pallid Harrier

The pale or pallid harrier (Circus macrourus) is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier family. As I mentioned before the scientific name is derived from Ancient Greek. Circus is from kirkos, referring to a bird of prey named for its circling flight (kirkos, "circle") and macrourus is "long-tailed", from makros, "long" and -ouros "-tailed". This is a typical harrier, with long wings held in a shallow V in its low flight. It also resembles other harriers in having distinct male and female plumages. Males are ghostly gray above with black wingtip wedges. Females more difficult to separate from other harriers; pay attention to the underwings with their barred primaries and dark secondaries. Juveniles are rufous and similar to Montagu’s, but appear dark rather than pale faced. In flight, a bit bulkier than Montagu’s but much more buoyant than Hen Harrier. Found in steppes, wet grassland, and agricultural areas it breeds mainly in Eastern Europe but increasingly recorded in Western Europe.

It breeds in southern parts of eastern Europe and central Asia and Iran and winters mainly in India and southeast Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to Great Britain and western Europe. This medium-sized raptor breeds on open plains, bogs and heathland. In winter it is a bird of open country.

Pallid harriers hunt small mammals, lizards and birds, surprising them as they drift low over fields, grasslands and moors.

During breeding, the pallid harriers are found mainly on natural grassy plains and dry steppes in flat or undulating terrain or on slopes, valleys with steppe vegetation and semi-desert, occasionally in agricultural areas, preferring wet grassland near small rivers or lakes or marshland for nesting. In winter it uses similar habitats, but also others, for example unirrigated wheat fields or sandy islands in the Indus Delta (Pakistan), open woodland and mountain plateaux in West Africa; infrequently it visits marshes and rice paddies. Outside the breeding season it may reach up to 3000 m in the Himalayas, and rarely over 4000 m in Africa.

The Pallid harrier is not globally threatened but is currently considered Near Threatened (Extinction Risk). It is suffering a steep population decline in Europe, but numbers are believed to be more stable in the Asiatic strongholds; probably in moderately rapid decline overall. The estimated global population in the first years of the 21st century 9000–15,000 pairs, with a great majority breeding in the Asiatic steppes in Russia, Kazakhstan & NW China, with small & apparently diminishing populations in the surrounding regions of Europe in Finland, Romania, Ukraine, W Russia, Turkey (where only very rarely proven to breed) and Azerbaijan. BirdLife reports that, in 2007, six pairs bred in Moscow region for very first time. Numbers in Asia believed reasonably stable.

Read more detail in my blog of the Pallid Harrier from Kumbhargaon.

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Later in the evening, almost with the last light, while I was filming the harriers there was an incident with a fox which I think was out hunting. At the time I was on the 7D Mark 2 wearing the 100-400mm and the action was quick so I didn’t have time to switch to the bigger camera and lens which, anyway, was pointing in a different direction. The harriers started to swoop down and hassled the fox till he fled. I was able to take a few photos of this spectacular moment and experience watching the harriers behave the way they did. I was at a shutter speed to match the fox as much as possible considering the extremely low light which basically made the high speed harriers a blur of motion. Maybe at a later point in time, at least after this craze with the harriers has passed, I will return and try to document these foxes.

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The following gallery consists of photos I got with both kits, the Canon 1Dx Mark 2 wearing the 600mm f/4 and the 7D Mark 2 wearing the 100-400mm, all through the evening and in no particular order. I also have a photo or two with the 16-35mm. I did start with the 2x extender on the 600mm thinking I wont be able to get too close but the rapidly changing and fading light and the close proximity made it redundant. Visit my Kit Bag to know more about the gear I use.

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