Hen Harrier Wednesday 24th October

Record shots taken in the gloom all pics (c) Bark

Had  a couple of hours on the moor yesterday afternoon and failed to find the Beardies that I had been looking for. It seems that every time I have been down to look for them it has been blowing a gale or very foggy, sometimes both! I think they are likely to still be there, but finding seven small birds in a fifty two acre reed bed is always going to rely more on luck than anything else.
There are several Stonechats out in the reeds and along the paths to the screens and they were something to look at in the gloom.
On a brief visit to the hide we saw a large number of Starlings flush out on Ashgrave and had our first look at the Harrier that had been seen on Tuesday by Terry Tossell. As we walked back towards the carpark the harrier was mobbed over the closes by corvids and then flew over our heads and headed out across Greenaways. A nice end to an otherwise ordinary visit.

It is worth scanning through the Chaffinch flock by the cattle pens as T.T. saw a male Brambling there on Tuesday.