Awesome Pallid Harrier

Perseverance pays off. I'd seen the juvenile pallid harrier at Vale Santo on two previous occasions and they were both at best very poor views. The first time I'd been following what I thought at the time would prove to be a wild saker when the harrier flew up and was immediately forgotten as I continued to follow the saker. The second time was yesterday when I saw it distantly and identified it from it's size and shape but didn't get much detail. That's not good when we're talking about what is without question the best looking raptor  I've ever seen. Juvenile pallid's are just stunning birds and I really wanted to see it again. 

So following a couple of hours looking for migrants at Ponta da Atalaia at Sagres where the star of the show was a wryneck, I decided to head for Vale Santo and park in the usual spot which would give me a good view over the plains. 

The incredible saker was there again, sitting on it's favourite rocks not too far from a nervous looking little owl. Quite honestly it's gutting to know that this bird has jesses, it would be bird of the holiday and probably the year by a million miles if it was truly wild. What a bird, it preys on kestrels and picks battles with peregrines. It's just an awesome bird. Anyway, I watched it for a bit and then this other guy turned up who was really not a birder, just a photographer, to the extent that he'd never even heard of hen harrier let alone pallid. 

We were talking about the saker when suddenly I spotted a distant ringtail harrier approaching at a distance of about 800m. it was coming straight towards us and at that distance it was impossible for me to get a good impression of the jizz but as soon as it turned it was obviously the pallid. It was almost falcon like it was so slim. It flew right over the perched saker and landed about 100m from the falcon. It took a few minutes for the saker to recover from the shock of having this upstart juvenile harrier fly right past, but when it did, it flew up an launched a full scale attack on the perched bird. The harrier flew up and thought about fighting back but decided that on this occasion flight was the better option. Wise bird. 

The saker now apparently content that the harrier had backed off and shown it the respect that it deserved returned to it's rocky perch and watched as the harrier flew towards us and right over our heads.

I managed to fire off a few photos of the bird but all at my usual standard so I was delighted when my companion showed me his photos. His are the back of camera shots in this post. Maybe it's time for a new camera.......

Why!!!?