Pallid Harrier - Middleton RSPB

 Unusually, this morning I checked the RBA web page before heading on my planned visit to Morton Bagot. What greeted me was news that a Pallid Harrier had been identified from photographs of what had been assumed to be a Hen Harrier at Middleton RSPB yesterday. The newly re-identified bird had been seen again this morning.

Time for a change of plan.

I hadn't been to Middleton RSPB since 2014, when I had twitched a Pacific Golden Plover. Pallid Harrier was a bird of similar status although it does rest uneasily on my British list from a distant view of a wintering bird in Norfolk in 2003. This however was the first West Midland record (discounting a perfectly good one that the National rarities committee harshly rejected from Belvide on the grounds that a hybrid could not be eliminated)...or so I understand.

The first challenge was to find my way into the site. You now have to drive past the Aston Villa training ground. Covid restrictions meant that the walk to the pits was a winding one through woodland. I took a wrong turning somewhere and met birders coming towards me who were in fact also on their way there. I followed them and reached the spot where a gaggle of ageing, covid-vulnerable, birders were vaguely trying to self-distance. I felt right at home.

There followed an hour of scanning, and lots of chat with old friends like Glen Giles, John Sirrett, and Graham Mant, while we waited for the bird to appear. Before us were hundreds of Canada and Greylag Geese, Lapwings, and Teal, and smaller numbers of other dabbling ducks. A Sparrowhawk put in a brief appearance causing a panic among birds and birders alike, while a Great White Egret stuck its head up behind an island before flying to a more obvious spot. A couple of Cetti's Warblers sang from the reedmace. A Ruff was flying around with the Lapwings at one stage.

Eventually a shout went up. The Pallid Harrier was in view. Initially miles away, it then obliged by getting closer. Panicking Lapwing and Teal scattered in all directions while equally anxious birders tried to get on the bird and stay on it. My mission, I decided, was to try to get any sort of image for this blog. These are my best efforts (heavily cropped).

Pallid Harrier showing narrow hand (the shot's not sharp enough to allow the primary tips to be counted)

In this view the white rump can be seen and also some breast streaking

One surprising thing about this bird is that it isn't a juvenile. Its actually an adult female. My shots are not clear enough to show this, but the image from which the original re-identification was made show a streaked upper breast and no real shawl which would have been typical of a juvenile.

Once it had gone out of view I was obliged to head home as I have a routine doctors appointment to attend.

Poor old soul.