On Sunday I went for a walk in some countryside the other side of our nearest town to blow out the cobwebs of the last two days indoors. After parking the car I set off down a path, running down the side of some woods - the other side of which is a main A road. after taking a turn in the path to follow a field boundary and start my loop back towards the village where I started, I noticed a large bird circling overhead.
It caught my attention for some reason, and as it was flying over a line of tall trees, I assumed it was a Rook or something similar. However as I looked I saw it was some kind of bird of prey with quite a large wingspan, and far from the frantic flappings of a Kestrel - as it was sweeping round in slow circles. It reminded me of someone in a glider, as it was riding the air currents and the wings were hardly moving at all. Clearly I could see the markings on the underside of the wings despite the distance involved, and it had lines running parallel to the wing edges (a little like you see on "boy racer" models of new hatchback cars). Quite a large fan tail was also evident.
I reached for the digital camera - with the hope of using the zoom function to observe it more closely (snigger...no chance in the sky!), but shortly after that it had continued it's ariel traverse and zig-zagged off over the main road somewhere. I continued my walk back towards the village, and as I was stood pondering the technological layout of an automated HV pole recloser (yeah - saddo!), a lady on a horse appeared and engaged me in conversation. She asked if I'd seen any interesting wildlife today, and resisting the temptation to say that I found a woman in jodphurs an interesting lifeform, I told her of the bird sighting. She informed me that that would be the Honey Buzzard that was often sighted near the line of trees.
I have to admit total ignorance of the existence of this creature, but having "internetted" it seems that it's a pretty rare bird in the UK, so I was wondering if anyone else has had any experience with it. I'm thinking of a return trip soon with a view to getting a picture or two. People apparently tend to be vague with the location of sightings with birds like these on account of egg "collectors", so I'm a bit reluctant to shout about this too loudly.
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.....sorry i'll get my coat
I did see and record similar 2011. I reported
Originally Posted by biker-bri
) everyone found it rather hard to believe but I knew they were out there.
