No White Tail

Saturday, April 10 

 

Maybe it was worth another go, after a distant speck at Cley and a dip at Horsey  This is definitely in my top five favourite birds, and my favourite UK raptor. Pallas's Sea Eagle, my most wanted raptor, seems like a distant dream now, impossible to achieve.

A twenty five minute drive, scanning the sky as we went, we arrived at Horsey Mill. The layby was full, the four cars present's occupants all looking west. We stopped further along, and could see nothing. 

As we passed on the return journey, one of the cars took off at speed. We followed - this has paid off in the past, daft though it sounds. He swung into the Horsey Corner car park track where a small group of birders were looking through scopes. We stopped just before all the no parking bollards to scan the field to the south. The juvenile White-tailed Eagle, one of the Isle of Wight release birds, was sat on the ground at least 400 metres away.

A birder we know as a member of Great Yarmouth Bird Club, told us that it was a bird new to East Anglia, according to Roy Dennis, Number G466 (if my memory serves me correctly). We sat and watched it for about ten minutes before it did a short flight, resuming its position, just gazing about, being buzzed by Magpies. 

It took off again, this time rising slowly before flying strongly away, the massive yellow beak very obvious, even at this distance, its lack of a white tail indicative of its lack of years.  

 

I am not proud of these photos, but pleased I got anything, hand holding a 400mm lens looking past Pam and out of the driver's open window. Into the sun and very distant too. Do these sound like excuses? They are.