In dry years this bird, the Swamp Harrier, is a notable absentee from the plains country.

Two wetter than average winters have encouraged a few individuals to hang around and to possibly breed. I came across a pair yesterday near Campbelltown, variously hunting and displaying over a rough paddock.

I came across a lovely article on the Swamp Harrier, published in 1932 in Emu, the journal of the Australian Ornithologists Union, which notes

The Swamp Harrier (Circus approximans) may well be regarded as a bird of contrasts; a bird to which inflexible rules are unknown, and one worthy of more sympathetic study than has hitherto been devoted to it. Its habits vary as greatly as its plumage colour; it is migratory in some districts, stationary in others; it often flies low, but sometimes very high; it is as much at home in timbered country as it is in a marsh, and apparently its only adherence to accepted rules is in regard to the general situation of the nest and the colour of the eggs well distributed over the southern States, especially Tasmania where most of my observations have been made, this fine Raptore can usually be identified by its low, measured flight close to the top of rushes or grain where it hunts, at which time the white rump on the tail coverts is to be seen.

The author, Michael Sharland, was a renowned Tasmanian naturalist and writer, and regular contributor to the Emu and other publications for more than fifty years learn more here.

On the mainland the Swamp Harrier is rarely seen over wooded country, unless on migration or undertaking longer range movements. Many of my observations in recent years have been of immature birds on the move.