More Self-found Montagu's Pix!

Montagu's Harrier, Coly Common, 18/04/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Montagu's Harrier, Coly Common, 18/04/2016 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Montagu's Harrier, Coly Common, 18/04/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Montagu's Harrier, Coly Common, 18/04/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

It's Under the Blue Lorry!, Coly Common, 18/04/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Montagu's Harrier, Coly Common, 18/04/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Montagu's Harrier, Coly Common, 18/04/16 ( Copyright T D Wright )

Well, I may not take the best photographs but I certainly find the best birds. I've put a lot of effort in over the years to learn to separate the 3 main ringtail harriers. I remember my first Montagu's which I saw from the train on Worth Marshes as I arrived in Sandwich to stay at the Observatory back in 1987. I walked into the Obs., announced my news and several people rushed off to twitch it! Since then I've observed them many times at Dungeness and also at their East Anglian nesting sites. Once Pallids started turning up in Britain I realised I needed to get to know them too, so have twitched both the stunning male on Sheppey in 2002 and the ringtail on the Mendips in 2011. In 2014 & 2015 I then really got my eye in by visiting Lesvos ( where all 3 occur together ) and Portugal where Monty's and Hen were both present. All this hard work finally paid off on Patch on Sunday 17th April 2016 when a bird which might have been missed was quickly and correctly identified because I saw that it had a secondary bar on the upperwing, no pale collar and no 'little finger' i.e. 3 primaries at wing-tip.( I won't list all the other features as you've already no doubt been through all of them on Steve Waite's blog. ) Hen & Pallid both eliminated in seconds! And yet, even though I'd told people why it was definitely a Monty's and why, they still kept trying to call it something else! For some reason, people are claiming to have found this bird but really, I was the first person to say Montagu's so I've probably got more right than anyone to say it's my own self-find. Especially when others who knew nothing about it until I told them are claiming to have self-found it!