It has been a strange sort of day where my birding was likely to have been non existent due to other commitments. However when I opened the curtains this morning the first bird which I saw and heard was a Spotted Flycatcher sitting on a post next to the pond. I thought that I was dreaming but it stayed around the garden for most of the day and interestingly another Spotted Flycatcher visited another garden in the village. I wonder if they knew of each others presence?. I managed a very brief visit to Pitsford Reservoir and caught up with the 2 Black Necked Grebes which are such super birds to see at this time of year. Not much else of note, just lots of very noisy Black Headed Gulls which have successfully bred on the tern rafts. The poor Common Terns have no chance of getting onto these rafts this year.
When I returned home late this afternoon I had a dilemma, a desperately needed cup of tea or take my old crocs out for a walk? In the end my old crocs won me over and as they seemed quite lively for them I decided to take them across the fields, albeit slowly. As we came back I picked Bobbie up to carry her the last bit as I desperately needed that cuppa. I heard a very quiet alarm call from a Blue Tit and automatically looked up and saw a raptor coming over. Poor Bobbie nearly got dropped as I knew by it's distinctive jizz of longer wings, longer broad tail pinched in wing base giving a S shape and slim neck with a protruding head what the bird was, a Honey Buzzard . Luckily as I had taken the crocs across the fields I had also taken my binoculars and I had a good look at the birds. It had a pale grey head, pale underbody and distinctive dark oval wrist patches which would suggest a male bird. I couldn't believe it and was so glad that I hadn't sat down and had a cup of tea before taking the crocs out for a walk.
After tea it was the turn of my young collies to go out so I went up to Harrington Airfield. It was a lovely evening and we just took a very slow amble as I was looking for a specific species, but no sign. It was whilst I sat around the bunkers enjoying the peace and tranquility, the only sound being the birdsong, that I had a Marsh Harrier fly over and as far as I could tell it kept on flying towards the A14. A good day for raptors in the county as I understand that a White Tailed Eagle was seen at junction 15a of the M1. So someone else was also in the right place at the right time.
Regards Eleanor
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