Blythburgh Lodge, Walberswick.

Just a short time out for a quick little picnic.  Gone cold yet again and a stiff breeze from the west.

Well I was rather late picking up on this bird as it must have been sitting right opposite where we park up. It was not until I went walk about that I heard an unusual call and immediately picked up on a large raptor in an adjacent tree. I put the bins on it, it flew, it was immediately obvious that it was a ROUGH LEGGED BUZZARD. With white above tail and ringed .  I reached for the camera and went for it. Not a bad shot and all id required I believe.
Except that as I reported through, isn't it rather dark for RLB. It was also rather large. So after a few emails and tweets the conclusion is it is a HARRIES HAWK. The thing is I have never seen such a large H.H. so I went on the internet and it seems that some H.H. have been crossed bred with GOLDEN EAGLE how sad. That will teach me. But look at the length of the wing and then look at the second pic and you can see the white is really running to the underbelly.
In conversation with Craig Fulcher it seems that he may have seen this bird three weeks ago in mid Suffolk. I also have friends that claim they saw a similar bird at Barnby about five weeks ago.
                                                                  Rough Legged Buzzard/ Harries Hawk

 

Also about a singing GARDEN WARBLER and three BLACKCAP. As well as 3 WHITETHROAT. SHELLDUCK, PIED WAG, MISTLE THRUSH, CHAFFINCH, SWIFT, SWALLOW, HOUSE MARTIN, SAND MARTIN, and just to finish it of a HOBBY. Enough to make anyone's picnic.