Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Is it a bird? - well, yes. But which one?

Coming home from Laguepie the other day we spotted a large bird of prey apparently hovering over a field. Too big to be a kestrel, in fact a male hen harrier tried to muscle in but was seen off in no uncertain terms. Unusually a car behind us on the single track road prevented us stopping for photos, but a couple of hundred metres further Malc managed to fire off some quick shots. The images are grainy and out of focus, having been blown up from distant specks, but the bird is clearly visible. We thought "black kite", but someone pointed out that the tail was too rounded; perhaps marsh harrier as they are about the right size; what about booted eagle; or just plain buzzard? Anyone got any ideas? A neighbour asked us a few weeks ago about a "hovering" large bird, but this was the first time we have seen it. It may be that it actually glides to a position and hangs there briefly rather than hovering a la kestrel.
A couple more pix in wild photos later.



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