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Large bird of prey in the County Durham area, UK? (2 Viewers)

ShallowGraves

New member
England
Hi all,
I’m not a bird watcher so I was just wondering if someone here could help me out... more for curiosity than anything else.

I was out in the Lanchester area, County Durham, this morning at around 9.45-10.15 and saw what appeared to be a really large, brown, bird of prey, I wasn’t close to it but even from a distance this thing seemed huge. I just happened to be looking in its direction and spotted it coming in to land on a tree opposite me. As it landed it was the leg length that I noticed the most, it was like a kid with feathery trousers on haha. So, it landed, looked about for about 20-30 seconds or so then moved on to another tree close by for maybe another 10-20 seconds then flew off in a northerly direction. Sadly too slow with the phone so no pics.

Maybe it was just closer than it seemed and wasn’t actually that big. There’s a ton of wildlife/prey in the area, hares, moles, deer, even saw an adder about 20 mins after my pterodactyl encounter... I’ve seen plenty of smaller birds of prey about in the past but nothing like this. I’ve checked a few websites but none of the descriptions of more common birds for the area seem to fit the bill so I was thinking its maybe something just passing through?!?! Anyway, wondered if someone here could help shed some light on what it might have been???

Cheers!
 
Hello,

welcome to Birdforum!

I agree with Birdboybowley and Butty, a Common Buzzard is my first guess too.
Your description of the behaviour, a raptor changing its position presumably just a little bit to a close tree nearby fits a Common Buzzard better than a Red Kite (?)

Yes, after reading your comparison with a Pterodactyl, a Red Kite came into my mind:


 
Hi
Hi all,
I’m not a bird watcher so I was just wondering if someone here could help me out... more for curiosity than anything else.

I was out in the Lanchester area, County Durham, this morning at around 9.45-10.15 and saw what appeared to be a really large, brown, bird of prey, I wasn’t close to it but even from a distance this thing seemed huge. I just happened to be looking in its direction and spotted it coming in to land on a tree opposite me. As it landed it was the leg length that I noticed the most, it was like a kid with feathery trousers on haha. So, it landed, looked about for about 20-30 seconds or so then moved on to another tree close by for maybe another 10-20 seconds then flew off in a northerly direction. Sadly too slow with the phone so no pics.

Maybe it was just closer than it seemed and wasn’t actually that big. There’s a ton of wildlife/prey in the area, hares, moles, deer, even saw an adder about 20 mins after my pterodactyl encounter... I’ve seen plenty of smaller birds of prey about in the past but nothing like this. I’ve checked a few websites but none of the descriptions of more common birds for the area seem to fit the bill so I was thinking its maybe something just passing through?!?! Anyway, wondered if someone here could help shed some light on what it might have been???

Cheers!
Hi. Agree with the rest, sounds like Common buzzard..........(pterodactyl!)😂
 

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