Its behind you

A trip out to Chew this afternoon saw me take several rather nice shots of birds in flight which I am quite pleased with.  This is by some way not the best shot, but it is the most interesting :-)

I saw a group of birders watching for this bird and joined them as several were packing up.  Having been told that they knew it was around, those leaving confessed had not managed to actually spot the bird and were giving it up as a bad job.  Those still remaining got quite excited by a great white egret and had their backs turned, when guess what should choose that moment to break cover, but the ospreyMarsh Harrier* that they had been waiting for.

It was some way away, and I would really have needed an 800mm lens to get any sort of a reasonable shot, but even after a significant crop I've chosen to go with it as its the first time that I've seen one in the wild, let alone photographed it.

LATER

Hyperion has suggested that this could be a female hen harrier.  Having looked, and looked at the various shots, and done quite a bit more research I'm pretty sure that this is actually a Marsh Harrier - still a first for me :-)

YET LATER

The very helpful man at the Bristol Ornithological Club responded to my email to confirm that this is indeed a male Marsh Harrier.