A tale of two harriers

As we (Ed, Bee and Will) walked to the farm after lunch today we spotted two 'ringtail' harriers flying around together in North Valley and to cut a very long story short we have ended up with an incredible harrier double - Pallid and Montagu's Harriers. As previously mentioned our now long staying juvenile Pallid Harrier is a potential first for Wales and obviously incredibly rare, breeding no closer than Eastern and Northern Europe. The next rarest is the Montagu's Harrier which has the distinction of being Britains rarest raptor. So to have the two flying around together in a small area on an island not normally famed for it's rare raptors is quite incredible. Unfortunately the wind is in the north and the seas are big and there are no boats running out to the island (it's always the way) tomorrow. There should be boats out to the island on Sunday (28/04/13). The sun, however, shone all day and conditions were not too bad for the hunting harriers as they were both seen with full crops.

First view of the second 'ringtail' harrier

Female Montagu's Harrier Circus Pygargus

Juvenile Pallid Harrier Circus macrourus