:h?: Ive been birding today. But my Partner and I came accross several birds that have realy confused us.
2 sightings are definately 1xBuzzard & 1xSparrowhawk. However the next 2 sighting proved a problem.
The ID made more difficult due to weather conditions ie heat haze & position of sun and gusting wind.(spotting scope at 40x magnification)
The first UFO's are 2x large raptors who innitially seemed to mirror each others flight. They both stayed relatively low to ground level using a flap-flap-glide flight.
They both also appeared to have long tails with long fingered wings. They both constantly called to each other (superficially gull like). wings held in a slight V shape, not straight. Suddenly without warning they met -1 turned upside down and they appeared to exchange something in mid-air.
They then parted,frantically calling, flying at first at shrub hight. 1 dissapeared but the other flew past us at very low level. It was brown in colour with a white rump, possibly a light bar on the tail.
The second UFO was spotted some 10 minutes later. A large, greyish coloured bird (possibly - long legged) was spotted sitting on top of a medium sized shrub. It flew with a flap-flap-glide motion, wings in a V shape. Black wing edges clearly visible.
Were both used to seeing buzzards and sparrowhawks but these 2 sightings have confused us particularly as we are reminded of the Hen Harriers we saw on Mull 2 years running. But wouldent this go against the text books????ie time of year etc
Please help cos its driving us loopy! :h?:
Jock
2 sightings are definately 1xBuzzard & 1xSparrowhawk. However the next 2 sighting proved a problem.
The ID made more difficult due to weather conditions ie heat haze & position of sun and gusting wind.(spotting scope at 40x magnification)
The first UFO's are 2x large raptors who innitially seemed to mirror each others flight. They both stayed relatively low to ground level using a flap-flap-glide flight.
They both also appeared to have long tails with long fingered wings. They both constantly called to each other (superficially gull like). wings held in a slight V shape, not straight. Suddenly without warning they met -1 turned upside down and they appeared to exchange something in mid-air.
They then parted,frantically calling, flying at first at shrub hight. 1 dissapeared but the other flew past us at very low level. It was brown in colour with a white rump, possibly a light bar on the tail.
The second UFO was spotted some 10 minutes later. A large, greyish coloured bird (possibly - long legged) was spotted sitting on top of a medium sized shrub. It flew with a flap-flap-glide motion, wings in a V shape. Black wing edges clearly visible.
Were both used to seeing buzzards and sparrowhawks but these 2 sightings have confused us particularly as we are reminded of the Hen Harriers we saw on Mull 2 years running. But wouldent this go against the text books????ie time of year etc
Please help cos its driving us loopy! :h?:
Jock
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