Harris Hawk at Elmley

A later start today as the trip to Elmley is not to far, we are after the Long-Eared Owl that has been seen here by the orchard.
On the way in to the reserve we flush up a Marsh Harrier right in front of the car that gave us a great view of it.

As we follow the Harrier we spot a nice looking Merlin on a gate post, this turns out to be the best sighting that any of us had of a Merlin so a nice start to the day, the only downside is it is to dark to get a good photo, sod's law I suppose the nearest we have ever got & the weather is to dull to take a good photo.

Never mind, on to looking for the LEO now, but after about an hour of looking we give up as the bird has not been reported today.

We spend the next hour looking over the scrape & fields behind the toilet block, plenty of Golden Plovers, & Lapwings walking about, a number of Teal, 1 single Wigeon.
Flying from tree to tree are Goldfinch, house Sparrow, Wren.

We are heading for Capel fleet & Harty Ferry now, but on the way out we see a bird sitting on a tall post, we think it is a Buzzard, but Brian soon puts us right & calls a Harris Hawk, once again it is really near to us, but the weather stops us getting a good photo, we know this is an escapee bird but its really nice to see it up close in the wild.

Before we leave we see another 2 Merlin, & 3 Marsh Harriers.

On the way to the watch point we see a field full of Partridge runing about,  we spend the next couple of hours looking at more Marsh Harriers & a couple of Buzzards, one just a common Buzzard, but the other one could have been a Rough Legged, but not confirmed. also 60 or so Shellduck & a sprinkling of Little Egrets.

We missed out on the target bird but it was well worth the trip, another great day spent with the boys.