A 2CY male Hen Harrier had been showing erratically around the N end of the Stanwick Lakes complex in recent weeks, however it seemed to be beginning to settle into a bit of a routine, coming into roost somewhere between 14:30pm & 16:00pm.
I had a full day to go birding so I firstly did a small tour of a few sites again. I began at Clifford Hill GP which was disappointingly short of any decent wildfowl numbers. So I understand it, this is perhaps due to the apparent recent increase in wildfowl shooting activity around the adjacent pits unfortunately.
The most 'notable' birds here were a handful of Goosander on the river by the boat club and a single Golden Plover flying around with c100 Lapwings. A far cry from the several thousand Golden Plover that used to grace the site...lean times!
Pitsford was next, looking to add the drake Ring-Necked Duck to the 2019 yearlist. Despite lots of thorough searching, I failed to find it. There were 3-4 Great White Egret, a pair of Stonechat, a single drake Pintail and several Red-Crested Pochard in the Scaldwell Bay, including a striking leucistic bird.
The Ravenshorpe / Hollowell Res combo next. Ravensthorpe held an impressive number of Teal on the small side of the road, as well as a couple of Green Sands. I was chuffed to pick out the presumed Gadwall x Wigeon hybrid, which I'd forgotten was there to be honest. It may well just indeed, be a Gadwall x Wigeon, however the head colour does elude perhaps towards American Wigeon (?) Who knows, but a cool bird to scrutinize!
Hollowell had the usual 1-2 Stonechat in situ at the inflow end, while up at the point, a cracking 2w Caspian Gull was settled, albeit for about 10 seconds before it annoyingly decided to bugger off before I could fully appreciate it!
A bit of a drive along the A14 & then A45 and I arrived at Stanwick at about 2pm. Straight away, on the lay-by pit, I found the Pink-footed Goose amongst the local Greylags, feeding on one of the islands.
I then took the track up to the far north end and after some 15-20 minutes, found a suitable spot to view the Harrier's favoured area, a rough grassy slope up towards some farm buildings. I waited quite a while, however it wasn't particularly cold and the sun even put in a brief appearance behind me as it began to set.
At about 15:15, I caught sight of a bird in the corner of my eye, flying in from the north and into the favoured field. YES it was the Hen Harrier!! It began flying around the field several times, allowing me to take it in, as well as grab a bit of video too. It then dropped into the long grass. The long wait for a county Hen Harrier was over...and a male too!
Surprisingly, the bird never actually came up again and instead appeared to have hunkered down for an early night! It was a little disappointing, but I saw it, plus the views I did have were really good. I could count myself lucky too, as several other birders had tried as many as SIX times before they saw it!
The day was capped off by fab views of a Barn Owl in what little light there was left as I walked back to the car. It seemed to almost give me a bit of a fly past, peering over it's shoulder to check me out!
I went home smiling...the Hen Harrier hoodoo was over!
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