Wednesday 28 January 2015

A few recent moorland bits

The tell-tale alarm calls from Carrion Crows revealed a hunting juvenile male Goshawk. It swept  low over long rushes but failed to flush up lunch. After perching up for 15 minutes he tried another low level sortie before departing. As is usual after a Gos encounter I was left a gibbering wreck.








Hen Harrier - juvenile male. Pale eye, lightly marked primaries and light build.



Juvenile female showing typically well barred primaries


Juvenile female taken from a video-grab

2CY (2nd winter) male Hen Harrier. Dark brown saddle and brown edged wing coverts.

Seen from below and at distance the same 2CY male looks like an adult

Two video-grabs of the 2CY male hunting


A juvenile female was hunting when the 2CY male passed by. Both came together almost like a breeding pair about to perform a food pass before going their separate ways.

Found a nice juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard on the 29 October. It stayed around for a few days but eventually moved on perhaps fed up with getting constant hassle from harriers and local Buzzards.