The Lincolnshire Bird Club

Anthony Turn left off the A15 (a couple of miles south of Barton) onto the B1206 and after a couple of hundred yards turn right and travel over the A15. The viewing area was just about half a mile down this road by a small wood on the right. Hope that helps

These are todays comments by Tom Lowe - the finder of the bird.

Hi Roy,


Alas those videograbs are as good as it gets! If I get a chance tomorrow I'll run through the video again with special attention to the collar.

I had reasonable views yesterday afternoon and noted all the key features, although as you suggest the boa is by no means the boldest. But the underwing pattern is virtually diagnostic and the fact that it's orange is another very good feature- 2cy Monty's tend to moult by May so would be showing some first-adult features. The flight action was not especially reminiscent of Monty's either, in my opinion.

Cheers,

Tom

Re Steve routledges comments targeted at me unfairly as i ,once again was only Reporting todays events from some highly experienced birders,What is your Beef??did you the other night see all the relevant id critera that 100% ids this as a Pallid Steve Routledge??I never got good enough views of this bird to make a decison either way...dont shoot the messenger,contact mr Hursthouse and argue it out with him....

It is worth mentioning at this stage that the 2CY harrier reported at Gib over ther last week (and still here yesterday morning) shows much similarity to the North Lincs bird. Views of the Gib bird have been fairly superficial due to light and distance. However, it also shows a 'hooded' appearance, dark under secondaries and seems to lack a dark border to the inner primaries. The Gib bird shows some streaking on the upper breast.

The Gib bird does not show an obvious boa or collar either and mostly on this basis I have discounted pallid harrier in favour of Monties.

I have not detected any flight pattern that would seem unusual for Monties.

Cheers

Kev

From the distance I am viewing the bird, about 2000 miles range, with all due respect to the image capturer, I think that better images will be needed to view critical detail on what is clearly a very interesting bird. I did notice when viewing lots of Monties in Spain in April that the trailing edge to the underside of the inner primaries seemed much more variable than suggested in the papers with some birds clearly having a pale trailing edge and more open pattern. A few images may be in the archive on my blog as are a few 2cy Pallids from Lesvos.
Look forward to more interesting diversions from Brunnich,s Guillemots, Long tailed Skuas and Hawk Owls!

The bird was still present this morning. First located at 06.50 on the south side of the B1206, it then crossed the road and I last saw it at 07.40.
Have put another couple of pictures in the album, they are not great but at least people have got something to look at. The Harrier has never showed at close range when I have been there and views are often with the light against. Hopefully it will linger so that Graham is able to obtain some better pictures.

Roy

A few of us including (ND, CN, KS, SS, & KP) saw the harrier several times throughout the day hunting over a wide area and was seen at one point to catch a Blackbird. As much as we wanted it to be a Pallid we were struggling to see any of the key features for this species. The two key features for a juvenile are the head pattern and the underwing pattern. After spending a great deal of time we eventually obtained reasonable views of the head but could not see a pale collar. With regards to the underwing the bird didn't show a dark trailing edge to the primaries or dark primary tips which is good for Pallid (but this is a variable feature) but the underwing primaries didn't appear to be coarsely barred and no pale (boomerang) patch could be seen at the base of the primaries, so this is more in favour for Monty's.

Comparing the bird today with photos taken two days ago it was interesting to note how quickly it has begun to moult its primaries, see photos posted in the album.

regards

Wayne

The moult of the inner prims may hopefully suggest that it has settled in for the summer. The difficulties of identifying ringtail harriers have long been vexing birders and the reason that numerous papers have been written on the subject. The impression that Pallid Harrriers are easy to ID seems to have arisen as a result of the multiple occurrence of easy juv Pallids in autumn 2011. Still looking forward to seeing it though!
And if the weather is bad there its force 6 north east off the Arctic ocean with driving rain and 4C up here!

With ref: to Wayne's Harrier sp2 photo. It looks to me as though it is primary 2 on both wings that is missing and that new primary 1 is growing and visible. This would imply that it has not 'suddenly' dropped two primaries within the space of two days and that it is a different bird to that photographed by Roy. I still think Monty's for both birds. Not the clearest photos to analyse though!

Has anyone seen the auxiliaries on this? Often easier to see than primary patterns.

No sign of any harrier this morning. 8.30 till 10. Cheers. Rick

just back from a spell at my daughters in nottm so have not seen the bird but from the photos it is not the bird i saw at patringham, me thinks monties

terry whalin

oooh ps hobby over the a 46 near whisby 1700hrs ish 14th june
ta much

With the big caveat that I'm only looking at this on my phone, I'm struggling to see why Pallid is being ruled out by so many. 1st sum Monts should have barring on the auxiliaries I think, and this bird seems to be unmarked in this area. Also, the inner primary tips seem to be pale, also favouring Pallid. If anyone who can see the high res pictures refute this then great, and if I'm wrong about the auxiliaries then fine, I'm just surprised its not been mentioned before.