After a few no-shows, I had an amazing close encounter this morning as I walked back to Castlemartin Church. As I approached the West-Court Farm sheds, the pale harrier flew W past me at about 30-40m range. I enjoyed the view through the bins, as it would not be visible for long. It briefly disappeared behind a belt of trees, and I was able to fire off a few distant record shots as it continued down the valley before it splashed to the left and over a (very depleted) clump of Monterey pines. It was in a bearing that would have taken it to Gupton Farm and possibly to the Range, where it had been observed heading before.
I think it still hunts in the valley in the Kingsmill-Corston Farm-Axton Hill area. It clearly adopted a large feeding range, perhaps moving further afield as the food supply in Corse dried up. only 7 mallardjust a little labuyo4 lapping6 nonsense2 moorhen. Teal can be heard in the inner part of the reedbed. Herring and LBB gulls and 15 greylags in the wet fields of West-Court Farm.
The upper part of the Corse can be accessed by the PROW which skirts the road on the right before Castlemartin Church, but as long as it stays around you can run the harrier anywhere in the catchment, I’d say.
The pale panels on the upper wing stand out in the distance
