Saturday, 28 April 2018

A Long Moorland Hike - with a Mystery Raptor

14:25 - 18:20.

Nearly 4 hours hike today from home to the higher moors.
The furthers point was way above Ogden, near to the Wind Farm.
Quite an interesting day.

Birds:-

A camera shy,Reed Bunting 200 yds from the house!
3 Little Owls at various places along the way.
Treecreeper.
2 Kestrel.
A few Willow Warblers.
Skylark, Curlew, Meadow Pipit.
3 Red Grouse (Heard not seen).

Whitethroat - very, very flighty, but it did sing a couple of times - encouraged by my high pitched whistled Whitethroat impression

A record for me of 6 Wheatear seen on the Taylor Lane fields.

Also seen somewhere along the way a mystery Raptor flying east.

The bird was 'lethargic' in flight.

I'm hoping it's a Short Eared Owl (because I've never seen one!).
Or just maybe  a Hen Harrier.






Very distant Large Gulls










Spot the Whitethroat







And somewhere along the way....




Somewhere else along the way - this raptor....







This photo looks very interesting






2 comments:

  1. It's not a shortie or a HH John - Red Kite maybe, looks to have a slightly forked tail on some views ????

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  2. Thanks for looking at the photo Dave
    It was a bit of wishful thinking for the shortie or HH!!
    I have a pal in Wales who will venture an opinion if I ask.
    He was 90% in favour of a Red Kite as well.
    I was thinking Buzzard for a while as well.
    The bird was seen on Soil Hill.
    I did not divulge the area where I saw the bird on my blog at the time,just in case it was a 'protected' species.
    Thanks again.
    John



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