Raptor Rarity

The reason for the late posting is that blogger is being a right so'n so and not uploading my pics, I know some of them are abit ropey but their not all bad!

After sweating it out all day yesterday I couldn't resist a trip down the coast to Winterton on sea today to see a rare bird of prey, a Pallid Harrier, that had been found here yesterday morning. After an anxious half hour wait, scanning the area where the bird had last been seen, a few people were starting to sound a little desperate, with puzzling calls of 'I think that might be it' being atoned to a distant 1st year Marsh Harrier looking very slightly smaller than the two adult females it was soaring with! A few minutes later however the real juvenile PALLID HARRIER appeared, thankfully much closer than its larger cousins and showed well on occasions for the next 20 mins or so. At one point it did settle in the open but was just a bit too far away for any quality shots to be gained on my digi set up, but just for the record I reeled off a few shots as best I could.

Pallid Harrier juvenile, although occasionally tricky to identify, the head pattern was particularly striking on this bird.





After well and truely securing our main target we decided to pop into Winterton village to try and see another rare bird that had recently turned up here, a Rose-coloured Starling. The adults of this species are striking to say the least having a shocking pink body and bill with jet black head, wings and tail, but this bird was a more subdued tawny juvenile, at one time derided as 'boring' by birders their subtlness has eventually won it more fans now. This one didn't look in the best of health,but if nothing more, I should think the huge Tick anchored to its throat wasn't the most pleasurable feeling!

Rose-coloured Starling
Despite my best efforts I have been unable to up load the photos of this bird, somewhere in cyberspace there are several Rose-colourde Starlings flying about! I will try again shortly.