The juvenile Pallid Harrier has remained on the Humber estuary for a little while now, but is not the easiest of birds to see. Most sightings have been in the early morning and late afternoon, as it flies to and from its roosting area. I wrote a few days ago, that I had seen it at great distance, around the Spurn lighthouse and, in view of its rarity I thought I'd spend the day looking for it. It was exactly on sunrise when I first saw the Harrier coming off a field and flying over the saltmarsh. It perched on a distant bush for a short while but was maybe spooked by a large fox which was seen, heading quickly towards it. The Harrier flew off in an Easterly direction and was lost to view. After an hour, it had not returned over the saltmarsh and I decided to move a little to the East myself. Another two hours later and the Pallid caught me by surprise as it quickly passed, low over the marsh. Having had a good look at its underside coloration, I rattled off a few images, knowing they were totally hopeless! I subsequently found my red focus spot was not centred, but had shifted to the right. A flying away shot! In the nearby fields, a couple of hundred Brent Geese were feeding on the grass and it only took a minute, to locate a stunning Black Brant amongst them. The large white blaze on its side and substantial neck collar, are very typical of this Brent subspecies 'nigricans'. A pleasing day out really, with other raptors too - 2 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine, 2 Merlins together and 2 Short-eared Owls.
Comments are closed.
|
|