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Unstead luck (1 Viewer)

Farnboro John

Well-known member
Clare and I visited the reserve adjacent to Unstead Sewage Farm (birders go to all the best places) actually hoping to connect with a Water Shrew that had been showing there earlier in the winter. We dipped that but had a good morning's birding with a showy Cettis's Warbler, three Water Rails feeding in the open, a Buzzard sitting on a post not very far out in a field and a Grey Wagtail sliding about on some remnant ice on one of the reserve ponds.

However the bird of the day was undoubtedly the immature male Goshawk that flew directly over us and kept going. We'd assumed it was a Sparrowhawk but that made no difference to my reaction which was to grab my camera, point it straight up and start shooting. As soon as I looked at the result I saw the breast was streaked rather than barred: diagnostic of immature Goshawk. It wasn't big enough for a female, we'd never have confused that with a Sparrowhawk at the fairly low altitude at which it overflew us. Fabulous!

John

Cetti's Warbler
Buzzard
Goshawk immature male X 2
Water Rail X 3
Grey Wagtail


20250202 (2)_Cetti's_Warbler.JPG20250202 (5)_Buzzard.JPG20250202 (9)_Goshawk.JPG20250202 (10)_Goshawk.JPG20250202 (11)_Water_Rail.JPG20250202 (18)_Water_Rail.JPG20250202 (19)_Water_Rail.JPG20250202 (23)_Grey_Wagtail.JPG
 

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