Hen Harrier - first record of the year

01/11/2026 07:25 to !1:10 Jon Lowes & 13:05 to 15:20 Andy Butler

Definitely a day of two halves; Jon covered the morning session with bright sunlight and good visibilty and I did the afternoon slot with low cloud, poor visibility and drizzle.

In the morning two skeins of Pink-footed Goose flew west and 9 Golden Plover landed briefly with an additional two flying over.

In the afternoon the Lapwing were flying around when I arrived and with them a small wader which fortunately landed with them confirming it was a Dunlin.

Dunlin with Lapwing

I walked around the lagoon in the hope of getting a better view and a male Hen Harrier flew over my head, crossing the lagoon and carrying on over the settlement beds. By the time I'd extracted my camera it was gone. 

I had noted that there were at least 24 Snipe on the waters edge and in the grass which were flushed by the harrier. It's unusual to see so many out in the open and it made me wonder if the harrier had passed over earlier. A male Hen Harrier was seen early afternoon on Beeley Moor so it's possible it was the same bird.

The low cloud brought groups of Fieldfare and Redwing in to the trees and bushes, several hundred of each.

There were only about 80 Lesser Black-backed Gulls mid-afternoon but one of the adult Yellow-legged Gulls was with them and I've added the photo I took of it yesterday in bright sunlight.

Yellow-legged Gull - adult

Jon mentioned on Friday's blog that I had seen a large number of Lesser Black-backed Gulls coming in to roost on Friday evening, I took a series of photos of the roost which I stitched together to create a panoramic view of them and from which I was able to count 2,278 individuals and, with an additional 300 flying in as I was leaving, it makes at least 2500 birds that evening which is quite a count.