Kentish (and Notts) 10-Raptor Fest

Occasionally, madness consumes me, and more often than not when a ultra-mega turns up in Britain, the likes of which has never been seen before and will probably never be seen again. With my boat to the Uists cancelled, I needed another project and the breaking news of a bird down south was all I needed. The star bird in question had in fact been seen a dozen or so times before but never for long enough for it to be twitched by others. This was a chance of a lifetime. I'm not proud of the 14-hour round trip, or the carbon footprint, or the cost of it all - including a new car following a wee bump on the way home. But some how it was all worth it; indeed, Worth in Kent was the name of the site where it was all happening. Cutting a long story short, I drove down on 29th May and stayed a couple of days: the major rarity was a cinch, the supporting cast almost as straightforward. And to top it all I got some very, very nice images of all three species here: Eleonora's Falcon (!), Red-footed Falcon and Eurasian Hobby. The journey home was broken by a 7-hour stint at Welbeck raptor watchpoint, which proved productive in the very end, and especially so because I found the bird we'd all come to see: Honey Buzzard. There were other birds of prey on show here too, as there were at Worth marsh. So, all told, I racked up an impressive list of raptors, in descending order of rarity/personal value to me: Eleonora's Falcon, Red-footed Falcon, Honey Buzzard, Hobby, Peregrine Falcon, Marsh Harrier, Red Kite, Common Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, Kestrel. The photos speak for themselves: