Thursday, October 15, 2015

Confusing Raptor over Gorpley Res last Saturday


It glided around and circled slowly over us in the very calm conditions.

'Scuse the bits in the camera !


Here it is zoomed in on. Little in the way of markings visible - I only saw it had dark carpel patches.

6 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

Common Buzzard I think Steve

Steve Blacksmith said...

That's what I thought at first, but the tail and wings seem too long.
Showed it a few birders at the Mark Avery talk.
They agreed.

ChrisJB said...

I agree, doesn't look quite right for buzzard. Is RLB too much of a long shot?

Steve Blacksmith said...

That's what I was thinking Chris, but it had an all-dark under-tail. So ruled it out.

Steve Blacksmith said...

No other takers?
J.Bev. asked me at the meeting if it glided low with "V" shaped wings, which it didn't. He was hinting at Marsh Harrier, which I hadn't considered, but that is what it probably was, though it only glided around and circled with outstretched wings, always above us.

So it was very confusing, but I'm happy with Marsh Harrier, one with perhaps a full belly and nowhere much to go. If it had gone below us, it would probably have shown it was a cream-crown.

ChrisJB said...

Would a marsh harrier show dark carpal patches though? Just a thought.