Rough-legged Buzzard in Norfolk

My friend, Chris Orders and I spent the day in North Norfolk yesterday, just generally 'birding'. More of this trip will follow, but I think that we will both agree that the bird of the trip was this juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard and that is primarily because of the way that we saw it.

We had viewed the area south of Choseley Drying Barns where two juvenile Rough-legged's have been seen for most of the winter, but we were unlucky in that we didn't see either. So, having thought that we had 'dipped' on these birds we continued on our way to Titchwell and then headed for home via Wolferton to see if we could get our eyes on the Golden Pheasant. Upon leaving Hunstanton, the traffic was at a standstill, so we turned around and made our way back to Choseley to go the country way home. Just before entering the village of Bircham this large raptor was seen by both of us being mobbed by a Crow, we both thought 'Buzzard', but when the bird banked we both saw the white tail, immediately changing our cries to ' Rough-legged'! Neither of us were 100%, however, so I managed to get a few ropey shots as the bird flew in front of the car and away. Arriving home I sent off a couple of emails to confirm I.D. and both Josh Jones and Mike Weedon positively identified the bird as a juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard. Nice.

Thanks to Mike for editing my less than impressive photos!

Rough-legged Buzzard at Holme Fen, Cambs

Some very heavily cropped photos of the juvenile Rough-legged Buzzard that has been present at Holme Fen, close to Peterborough since the beginning of November, but the news of this bird has only just become public knowledge, for one reason or another. The bird was re-found this Saturday (29th) by Mike Weedon and was enjoyed by a few birders, happily adding it to their Cambridgeshire lists, or even, as Mike did, to their Peterborough Bird Club (PBC) lists. The Rough-legged Buzzard was on neither of mine and so on Sunday (30th) I made the trip to Holme Fen and there found Mike and Richard Astle enjoying distant views of the bird. When I say distant, I mean distant, the bird was at least 1/2 a mile away and was refusing to come any nearer! It did, however show extremely well, hunting and hovering (which the pictures above show) for the hour that I was at the site, but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction and so the bird continuously faced away from us when hovering. That afternoon the bird came closer, but, alas, I was no longer there, but hopefully the bird will continue its visit long enough for me to return and get some slightly better images! I am not holding my breath though!