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 through the scope what I thought at the time would
prove to be a wild saker when the harrier flew up and was immediately, noted, forgotten and lost as I continued to follow the falcon. 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. Neither of these views are 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 about 200m away and 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 and profile it was impossible for me to get a good
impression of jizz but as soon as it turned it was obviously the pallid. It
was almost falcon like it was so slim. It kept coming straight towards us and eventually flew right over the perched saker
and landed about 100m to the right of the falcon. It took a few minutes for the saker to
recover from the shock of having this upstart juvenile harrier fly right over it's head,
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
suspiciously 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.......
You can really see the falcon like profile in this image.
Even by pallid harrier standards I think that this is one of the nicest individuals I seen. The rufous underparts seem very bright and the boa, neck collar and mask really stand out. Just a fabulous bird, so much nicer even than the adult male.
Saker.
Why!!!? But please go now. So far I've seen the saker attack a peregrine, hen harrier, pallid harrier and kestrel, the latter it caught and ate. It's a fabulous bird but it's now overstaying it's welcome. It's too dangerous to the local avifauna.
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