Friday 26 April 2013

MONTAGU'S HARRIER, River Axe !!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was just one of those special birding moments. I was talking to Steve and Jess and we were just on the topic of me missing EVERY rare bird of prey so far this year including Osprey, Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Hobby and Marsh Harrier...
BUT THEN the gulls on the estuary go up and Steve says to look out for a Red Kite because there are a few around at the moment. Then I spotted an interesting shape flying over, pointed the camera skywards and took some snaps of a distant bird of prey which gradually came closer (still pretty far away, a couple hundred metres at least). Steve got his bins on it and said it was a Harrier; lovely slender wings with tapered tips. We weren't entirely sure on the ID at the time due to the distance, but I sent the pics to Steve and he confirmed that his initial suspicion of it being a Monties was correct!
Patch tick for Steve, lifer for me. Bloody BRILLIANT!!!
Pics are pretty low image quality as the bird was very distant and I had my short lens on (70-200mm, pics are cropped to show approximately 2% of the original image area. Yes really, I calculated it) but this is one of those incredibly rare occasions when I simply don't care:




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