Marsh Harriers socialising?

[Jersali]

Hi,
having only ever seen individual birds, I watched this group of Marsh Harriers chasing and harrying each other though with no real obvious intent, is this normal social behaviour for these majestic birds?

[RoyW]

I can't say what was going on here, but it's not unusual to see up to 3 or 4 together in some areas during the day, and you can see even more when they gather at communal roosts. I recently saw at least 60 at a roost in Norfolk.

[snake]

Hi Jersali,

It's difficult to tell what they are up to from a photograph but I often see similar behaviour on my patch at this time of the year.
A large part of the Marsh Harrier diet during the winter months is carrion which is very often stolen from other birds.
Many times I have watched harriers chase off gulls, crows or magpies from a food item where they in turn have been chased away by a more dominant bird.
I have never seen them feeding together. If food is short it's not unusual to get a small build up of birds waiting their turn to join in the feast constantly harrassing each other as they wait for the dominant bird to finish.
In this case I would not be surprised if there was some carrion behind the longer grass and not seen in your photograph.

[Jersali]

Thanks for replies guys.
Snake you could be right, several birds looked to be occasionally dragging something with one claw, though I could'nt see what they were feeding on
Al