Pallid Harrier
Two days previously on Twitter a birder named Stuart Cossey who had only recently moved to the county mentioned seeing a juvenile
Pallid Harrier on his way home from work up near Royston. Of course this being a potential new species for Herts a few county birders asked for more details and on the morning of the 19th Barry Reed and others re-found the bird. I was at work and was just about to go and ask my boss for a half day when it was seen heading off and out of sight. Had I just missed out on this mega? Thankfully not as it was seen again that evening and so with that news I took the morning off work and headed over.
On arrival I met up with a few Herts birders and walked down into position. At about 7.30am Tom Speller said he'd got it and sure enough down in the valley there it was, a juvenile female
PALLID HARRIER! We all watched it as it hunted and flew around and at one point it seemed to damage its foot which showed in later photos. What a bird and amazing to think I drove all the way from Cornwall to Kent for one in 2002 which was just the 12th UK back then. You can almost get 12 in a year now! Many thanks Stuart for an excellent find.
No comments:
Post a Comment