Pallid Harrier?

minterno · 23-08-2012 9:25am #1

Hi guys,was driving along the road last week and i spotted this bird on a pole at the side of the road just on the east side of the midleton roundabout on the main cork waterford road,i took some footage with my phone but when i moved the car to a better angle the camera in the phone locked(turned out my memory was almost full)this bird was a first for me and although when you see the clip you might think its a young own,its def not an owl.

I had a good five minutes watching this guy and seen him fly away,anyway i showed the clip to the brother last week and this morning he saw a report about a pallid harrier spotted in east cork,well after a google the colours look right to me and i think it was one of those harriers,my camcorder was in the wifes car as we had been in the kingdom for a few days,although the clip is not the best see what ye think,

regards
http://youtu.be/M7XOmnR1oBE

V_Moth · 23-08-2012 9:42am

I think it would be very difficult to judge based on that footage. Separating the three "grey" harrier (Hen, Montagu's and Pallid) species that are likely to occur in Ireland is quite tricky and requires good views.

One thing that would count against a Harrier is the location, but unusual birds have turned up in stranger places!

Is there any way to get a higher resolution crop from that video? It would be good to rule out commoner species such as Hooded Crow, Woodpigeon and Feral Pigeon which can look as silvery in strong light (always best to work from common to rare).

minterno · 23-08-2012 10:43am

V_Moth wrote: »

I think it would be very difficult to judge based on that footage. Separating the three "grey" harrier (Hen, Montagu's and Pallid) species that are likely to occur in Ireland is quite tricky and requires good views.

One thing that would count against a Harrier is the location, but unusual birds have turned up in stranger places!

Is there any way to get a higher resolution crop from that video? It would be good to rule out commoner species such as Hooded Crow, Woodpigeon and Feral Pigeon which can look as silvery in strong light (always best to work from common to rare).

hi,if you had seen this bird yourself you would have known it was not any sort of crow or pigeon,as for harriers i have seen a hen harrier,this bird was a lot lighter in colour and is a first sighting for me in my 51 years,i know the video is not hd or zoomed in enough but thats as good as the camera allowed,i know what this bird wasn.t but dont know for certin what it was but it does look very like a pallid harrier going from some pics and clips i looked at online,i know the place of the sighting was unusal,main road,fairly busy traffic,i moved the car until i was just past the pole and had a perfect view of the bird for a good few minutes and would have had good footage but the camera froze and the bird took off,anyway will keep my eyes open and have the camcorder in the car as you never know, regards

V_Moth · 23-08-2012 11:18am

Sorry, I probably didn't put what I was trying to say across in the right way.

The sighting is really intriguing, but I don't think it will be possible to confirm this bird as Pallid Harrier based on this footage. It certainly looks like a male Harrier, but to confirm it as a Pallid Harrier, it would be necessary to get a good view of the wings to see the extent of the black on the primaries, as well as its general shape and size.

At the moment there are only five or six confirmed sightings of Pallid Harrier in Ireland, all immatures and the majority possibly involve just a single individual.

What I was trying to put across in my previous post (badly) is that when identifying any bird (and especially when claiming a rarity) it is always a good idea to rule out the commoner species first using visual clues.

Anyway, hopefully it will return as I would love to see an adult male Pallid Harrier

Also, thanks for posting, I will let local birders know to keep an eye out in the general area.

minterno · 23-08-2012 11:44am

V_Moth wrote: »

Sorry, I probably didn't put what I was trying to say across in the right way.

The sighting is really intriguing, but I don't think it will be possible to confirm this bird as Pallid Harrier based on this footage. It certainly looks like a male Harrier, but to confirm it as a Pallid Harrier, it would be necessary to get a good view of the wings to see the extent of the black on the primaries, as well as its general shape and size.

At the moment there are only five or six confirmed sightings of Pallid Harrier in Ireland, all immatures and the majority possibly involve just a single individual.

What I was trying to put across in my previous post (badly) is that when identifying any bird (and especially when claiming a rarity) it is always a good idea to rule out the commoner species first using visual clues.

Anyway, hopefully it will return as I would love to see an adult male Pallid Harrier

Also, thanks for posting, I will let local birders know to keep an eye out in the general area.

No bother.was just glad to see whatever it was

Kess73 · 23-08-2012 1:54pm

When you saw the bird in flight was it the outline of the bird that you could see, or did it fly closer to you that the distance it is from you in your video.

I am just curious as to the colouration of what you saw as a number of raptors can look white/cream/greyish when viewed from the front if they are perched at a distance from the viewer.

A Pallid harrier is not out of the question as there was a sighting in East Cork this year as your brother mentioned to you. They have been spotted in Clare (this month) and Galway also this year. There was also a sighting last year near Youghal.

What you got on video moves like a raptor, and does look similar to a harrier. But it also moves a lot like a kestrel and I have seen some very washed out looking kestrel over the years that would be a lot paler in colour that the one in this pic that I found online.

It looks too white for a kestrel, but then again you are shooting from a distance and from below the biord so the paler parts of a kestrel would be on view.

Could you give an idea as to wing shape/size from when it was in flight?

minterno · 23-08-2012 2:45pm

hi,the video clip suggest that i was some distance from the bird,when i moved my car to the other side of the pole,ie east of the video i was so close that i had to lie across the front seat as i had to look near vertical to see it,just trying to give an idea of how close i was,also when i first spotted the bird it was on a dfferent perch alongside the road and i got a very clear view then,the wings/plumage of the bird were silver grey,similar to a pigeon in colour,the neck as the bird looked in my direction was a thick ring of white,the breast was lighter than the rest,when it flew off there was no doubt it was a raptuer of sorts,reminded me of a skinny owl as it flew,defnitley not a kestrel,i cycle a few days a week in east cork and so am always on the lookout for birds and see the odd kesterel,im happy enough with what i think it might have been,its not a bird i have seen before and stood out like a sore thumb,id say a good few people saw it as it was so striking and grabbed the eye and they are probabley wondering 'what was that' regards

swifts need our help! · 23-08-2012 4:42pm

It doesnt look like a bird of prey to me. It doesnt have a long tail or an owl-like face. I think it's a collared dove. Harriers do not sit on lamp posts. Don Scott could be contacted to see what he thinks

V_Moth · 23-08-2012 5:05pm

swifts need our help! wrote: »

It doesnt look like a bird of prey to me. It doesnt have a long tail or an owl-like face. I think it's a collared dove. Harriers do not sit on lamp posts. Don Scott could be contacted to see what he thinks

I have looked at the video again, including zoomed in as much as possible and I don't think it is a Collared Dove or a harrier. Initially, the bird seems to be preening its chest (0:07), then turning its head to its right (0:25) before resuming preening.

When the bird turns its head at 0:25, the all grey head is quite noticeable at full zoom (ctrl + the plus sign). Also, on a couple of frames there seems to be reddish wash to the chest, which leads me to think it may be a Sparrowhawk, probably a bit fluffed up from preening.

However, I would happily be proven wrong on this.

minterno · 23-08-2012 6:11pm

you could be right but the colouring was different,i had a good view from close up and its not a bird i have seen before,i wont say im an expert but i have had an intrest in birds since my primary school days and would know the difference between a pigeon and a raptor,raptors would not be my strong point but this bird definitely was one,hopfully someone will get a sighting soon and a better picture,fingers crossed,regards

minterno · 23-08-2012 6:19pm

swifts need our help! wrote: »

It doesnt look like a bird of prey to me. It doesnt have a long tail or an owl-like face. I think it's a collared dove. Harriers do not sit on lamp posts. Don Scott could be contacted to see what he thinks

its not a collared dove,the original clip might be of better quality,its hard to say but i have played it on a big screen and i cant see how you came to that conclusion,but if anyone want to view the clip in its format before i uploaded it to youtube they're welcome,regards

swifts need our help! · 23-08-2012 6:40pm

cock sparra

dodderangler · 23-08-2012 9:15pm

swifts need our help! wrote: »

It doesnt look like a bird of prey to me. It doesnt have a long tail or an owl-like face. I think it's a collared dove. Harriers do not sit on lamp posts. Don Scott could be contacted to see what he thinks

You can't say harriers don't sit on lamp posts
All birds do and especially a bird of prey as they will take to the highest point in an area to scan for prey and what ever is closest to them be it a tree lamp post or telepole
Atb

Kess73 · 24-08-2012 9:05am

V_Moth wrote: »

I have looked at the video again, including zoomed in as much as possible and I don't think it is a Collared Dove or a harrier. Initially, the bird seems to be preening its chest (0:07), then turning its head to its right (0:25) before resuming preening.

When the bird turns its head at 0:25, the all grey head is quite noticeable at full zoom (ctrl + the plus sign). Also, on a couple of frames there seems to be reddish wash to the chest, which leads me to think it may be a Sparrowhawk, probably a bit fluffed up from preening.

However, I would happily be proven wrong on this.

Would go kestrel rather than sparrowhawk tbh. Shape is right, head movement is right, even size compared to the size of the tip of the lamp looks right. I spend far too much time watching sparrowhawks and the head movement just looks wrong for me for it to be a male sprawk, even one puffed up from preening.

Hints of red/rust colour would also be right for a kestrel. The pale look from a distance also looks right for a kestrel.

Would love for the OP to have spotted a pallid harrier though as spotting something out of the ordinary is always a nice thing.

Pallid Harrier?

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