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A bit off-topic this, but I know there are some butterfly-loving twitchers out there.....

See this morning by a colleague on her way to work (near Wantage, S. Oxon) and photographed with a phone. She got a good look close up for several minutes, as it sat in a hedge.

Is this what I think it is??

I'll stick my neck out and say it's a female hen harrier.

Is that what you thought it was?

Guy

sorry chris,

but the combination of image size and angle of bird its hard to define what it is.
colour wise its in the range of the harriers as guy says, but it could also be just a pale phase common buzzard.
how large was it?
how long was its tail in proportion?
and did it have any defining markings?

and what did you think it was?

gary

The underwing is very pale, in female and juvenile Hen Harriers there are several bars with darker wing tips. Male Hen Harriers have pale under wings with dark tips, but the back and tail are too brown for it to be this. Also the wings don't look long and thin enough for it to be a Harrier. The definitive marking that all Harriers have is a white rump, almost a white band between their back and their tails, the photo doen't show this but because of the angle it is difficult to see.

From almost 25 years experience I would say pale phase Buzzard with shadow of a doubt.

Wurzel

In the light of those comments, the more I stare at it the more I see buzzard, not harrier. Funny how you can make a single frame morph in front of your eyes by thinking of it as something else! But that can't be what you thought it was, can it? Buzzard is presumably the default raptor for S. Oxon.

Guy

The girl who saw it is married to a very keen birder and goes regularly on birding holidays eg to Scandinavia. She is also a very experienced scientist and very accurate in her observations.

She dismissed my suggestion of a hen harrier (but I did see two here on Saturday) when I saw the pic; I also suggested an immature pale phase buzzard, but she said it looked very un-buzzard like to her, and she is very used to seeing buzzards which are as common as the proverbial here - we have two nests every year 500 yards from where I am sitting now.

The mystery bird sat in the hedge 20 feet from her car for a minute or two, and only took off after she'd pressed the button on the phone to take the pic. She insists that the pronounced black eye bar (just about visible in the pic) and shaggy shanks can mean one thing only...

However unlikely, they have been seen here before in February, migrating (north I presume?).

Is she right or wrong?

Chris

sorry chris,

but if you have a problem typing the name "osprey", there ive done it for you.

i don't see any sign of a pronounced dark eye stripe, and osprey definatly don't have shaggy shanks as they would be a problem when fishing.

if it were a stray early bird returning from africa as early as this, this year he's gonna have a shock with our current temperatures.

adult pale phase buzzard

gary.

If it was an osprey, even a juvenile, I don't see how she could have been in any doubt after 'a good look close up'. I've watched many ospreys and even in silhouette they stand out as being different. However, perhaps she didn't have binoculars if she was on the way to work.

The bird in the picture really doesn't look like an osprey to me at all. I know I was influenced when I first looked at it by the subconscious thought it couldn't be a buzzard, because the post implied something more exotic. In Suffolk I've had many views of hen harriers, male and female, rising over hedges and then quartering over fields and it was that behavioural jizz that misled me, I think. Prejudices aside, I can now only see it as a buzzard!!

Sorry, Chris! If she's right, it's not with this photo, I fear, that she'll be able to prove it.

Guy

PS - I always write or dictate field notes when I see something out of the ordinary. Field notes would be very useful here. A description of what it looked like sitting, made while it was sitting, would certainly reveal more than the photo.

Many thanks for the opinions, which I agree with.

The colleague who saw the bird (and another local wildlife-er who came forward independently having seen it a couple of miles away an hour later) both thought it was a scruffy osprey (I didn't use the word, because I didn't want to lead anyone down the wrong path, being a professional sceptic....).

I have suggested she buy a decent digital camera and carry it with her, rather than rely on a phone with a 2 sec delay after you've pressed the button. I didn't suggest a make though, as I know that can be controversial...

Chris