Gotta Love The Pallids

A very busy weekend put down, Saturday being entirely taken up with Lyra's naming day. 

A whole day of eating and drinking and peopling meant we were desperate for the outdoors and fresh air.

With harrier season in full swing, we made a family outing to Saltfjarden where we knew birds were in situ.

Not long after we arrived in the car park, a gorgeous juv Montagu's began quartering over the far marsh.

This was quickly followed up by a juv Pallid Harrier doing a close couple of fly-bys. Photos were up to my usual high standards of course.


Abysmal

But what a stunner





You just gotta love the Pallids






There were at least two individuals around the Saltfjarden fields, with a further 1-2 seen around the wider, Porkkala area.

This is my favorite time of year, when the young harriers come through in numbers. Word from up North is that these have had a good breeding year, at least in Finland. Remains to be seen whether that is also the case further east, but I have a feeling we will see very good numbers, which means another record or two for Ireland I reckon.

Järsö fields were particularly productive, where we had a 1 Pallid Harrier and managed to pick up a feeding Red Footed Falcon (presumably same seen earlier in the week). This bird was a bit of a pain, feeding distantly over the trees, Hawking dragons with the hobbies and dodging sparrowhawks.

Also present were hundreds of Yellow Wagtail, our first Red Throated pipit of the autumn, several migrating Honey Buzzards, 1 juv Goshawk, dozens of Hobby and Sparrowhawk and several Red Backed Shrike.







Returning to Saltfjarden,this individual was kind of blocking my path on the way to the tower. Utterly stunning birds.













On the tower itself, the Pallids continued to hawk around the Marsh, where numerous ruff, snipe and Wood sands were feeding.

Apart from the harriers, large flocks of Common crane were in situ, with huge flocks of Barnacle geese moving over. 



The warm summer seems to have been beneficial to the cranes, with lots of awkward, goofy headed juvs in the flocks, giving their wheezing calls.

A delight to see, and more so, hear that incredible sound. Dinosaurs!

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