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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

harrier id east coast (1 Viewer)

Don't think the collar is contrasting/clear cut enough against the darker (but not dark enough) nape. Too pale on crown, and not quite as extensive dark cheeks as on Pallid.
Furthermore the legs look a trifle short, and wings a trifle long, but these are more diffuse impressions.

Admittedly very Pallid like, but still I lean towards Montagus.

Peter
 
Dark cheek patch reaching bill good for Pallid but everything else Monty, especially the collar is more or less absent, in y case very far from Pallid-like
 
I don't think you can say the collar is 'more or less absent' Tom, seems too extensive for Monty's?

I'd be pretty excited if I found this!


Andy
 
Imho this pseudo-collar is only visible because of the dark cheeks and the unusual well developped boa but it has the same colour as the underparts and is by no means as whitish and well designed as it should be in Pallid. Still I believe you have been very excited as it is by no mean a standard Monty. And hybrids are regular...
 
Of course, if more people were allowed to look, there'd be more and better photos, which would make identification easier . . . (hint, hint ;))

From twitter talk and chat at the Red-footed Falcon yesterday, it's somewhere in southeast Northumbs, between Druridge Bay and Ashington / Blyth. But that's still a huge area to search!
 
Surely the easiest way to id this bird is to id the adults.... what i mean is this is presumably around a nest site and hence secrecy about location....
 
Surely the easiest way to id this bird is to id the adults.... what i mean is this is presumably around a nest site and hence secrecy about location....


I very much doubt that either species breed at this location?

Montagues is our rarest breeding raptor whilst Pallid is very rare vagrant and there are currently 2 in the far North.


Andy
 
Surely the easiest way to id this bird is to id the adults.... what i mean is this is presumably around a nest site and hence secrecy about location....

Montagu's left their breeding sites long ago - this bird will be a migrant - where from anyone's guess. We have been getting migrant juv. Montagu's down here in southern Portugal since the middle of August.

IMO the bird is a nice heavily and richly marked Montagu's - quite a few down here incite thoughts of Pallid!
 
Surely the easiest way to id this bird is to id the adults.... what i mean is this is presumably around a nest site and hence secrecy about location....

The secrecy about the location is just bloody-mindedness on the part of the photographer and his friend.

He photographed a bird that he thought was a juvenile marsh harrier (true) and asked on a Facebook site for confirmation of his ID. He told his friend the location and further photos were taken and posted.

He is a photographer who has a pretty low opinion of birders from his comments on that site and is refusing to disclose the location as a dig at birders. He and a few others came in for a bit of flak earlier this year for swamping a local site on a daily basis, where a barn owl was breeding and providing good photo ops on its daytime hunting forays. The photographers, who were not birders, had to be warned about encroaching on the breeding barn and standing on the flight line of the returning owl to get shots with prey. He is now taking the opportunity to get back at birders who he feels spoiled his fun.

That' my interpretation of the situation, anyway.

At first he was even refusing to report the sighting to the county recorder, but I believe from further comments on that Facebook site that he is inclined to report it. For further info go to Northumberland Wildlife on Facebook and prepare to be amazed.
 
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The secrecy about the location is just bloody-mindedness on the part of the photographer and his friend.

He photographed a bird that he thought was a juvenile marsh harrier (true) and asked on a Facebook site for confirmation of his ID. He told his friend the location and further photos were taken and posted.

He is a photographer who has a pretty low opinion of birders from his comments on that site and is refusing to disclose the location as a dig at birders. He and a few others came in for a bit of flak earlier this year for swamping a local site on a daily basis, where a barn owl was breeding and providing good photo ops on its daytime hunting forays. The photographers, who were not birders, had to be warned about encroaching on the breeding barn and standing on the flight line of the returning owl to get shots with prey. He is now taking the opportunity to get back at birders who he feels spoiled his fun.

That' my interpretation of the situation, anyway.

At first he was even refusing to report the sighting to the county recorder, but I believe from further comments on that Facebook site that he is inclined to report it. For further info go to Northumberland Wildlife on Facebook and prepare to be amazed.

It is rants from misinformed individuals like this who have caused the fracas on the facebook group. firstly I was with the chap who first observed the bird and we both took photographs from a distance of approx. 120 metres, My friend has a very high opinion of birders and indeed many of his friends are birders and not photographers, it is my belief that it was not only photographers but also birders who made daily trips to see the Cresswell Barn Owl, as far as not reporting the location we were advised not to disclose the location in case it was a late bred youngster with a nest site nearby, if there is a divide between photographers and birders it is comments like yours that are causing the divide. feel free to look in the Cresswell to Ashington area, who knows the bird might be in that locality now;)
 
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