Hen Harrier #14

After a very disappointing 90 minutes at Marshside this morning we dropped in at Lunt Meadows on the way home, just to see what had been done whilst the car park was closed for a couple of days last week for construction. We're nosey like that don't you know :)
The answer was - not much! It looks like they have made a bit of a start on the foundations for the new welcome centre, but it has a long way to go. 
Lunt has been completely closed to visitors recently due to the huge amount of rain that we've had. It's a flood storage reservoir so often gets quite wet and wellies are recommended for the larger part of the year. Since we had trainers on I wasn't keen to go wading in the mud so we just said we would walk to the first screen on the right to see if there was anything about. As we came down the path, I spotted a kestrel in a tree on the left so we headed in that direction instead....of course!  The path wasn't as muddy as I expected, so we carried on a bit and this beautiful Hen Harrier suddenly flew up from the reedbed in front of us. It was a total surprise and I managed to run off a few shots before it headed for the back field and we lost sight of it. What a magnificent bird - a ringtail or female. Hen Harriers are not common in the UK and I don't recall seeing one for a few years so this was a real treat. 
We waited around a little longer and also saw a Buzzard and a Marsh Harrier so it was a real raptor-fest for an hour. A great decision to stop off for a quick visit I think.