Marsh Harriers

After a busy spring I eventually got round to checking on one of my harrier sites where I got some good photos in 2007; it looks as if the two males are there again, same birds, and the old rufous female has a nest but I did not see her with a male today; the male featured is last year's bird who was paired to the rufous female but there seems to have been some wife swapping and he now has the dark chocolate coloured bird shown below; 

when I arrived at 06:40 the male and female were screaming and mobbing something in the reedbed, diving frequently at the reed tops with legs and feet lowered; I suspected it must be a Bittern having seen this behaviour many times on the local patch where the two reedbed dwellers seem to be mortal enemies; the Bittern eventually showed itself and flew out of the reedbed but not before it had provided me with some good photo opportunities on the mobbing harriers;