{"id":2193,"date":"2012-02-16T22:02:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-16T22:02:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2193"},"modified":"2013-11-06T21:27:37","modified_gmt":"2013-11-06T21:27:37","slug":"a-rare-sighting-hen-harrier-and-some-pretty-long-tailed-tits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/a-rare-sighting-hen-harrier-and-some-pretty-long-tailed-tits\/","title":{"rendered":"A Rare Sighting (Hen Harrier) and some pretty long-tailed tits"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Two birds featured today, and I'll start with the rare sighting. Indeed, my first ever sighting of this majestic bird of prey. I spotted something in the distance as I was photographing today's second subject. I'd glanced up and over the fields in the distance I saw a large raptor. I fired off about half a dozen shots before it was fully out of range. These are hefty crops, but they show enough for an identification (courtesy of Wild About Britain<\/a> forums). It's a female hen harrier. We do get very occasional reports of them locally, but they are mainly located in the north of the country. According to the RSPB<\/a>, the ones seen in the south are probably migrants from Europe. Hen harriers are also our most persecuted raptor. These shots are not top quality, but that really doesn't matter!
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The other bird (or birds, there were several of them) I photographed was the long-tailed tit, for once not obscured by twigs, branches and just about anything else they can manage to hide behind.
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\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
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Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,980],"tags":[834,1182],"class_list":["post-2193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","tag-hen-harrier","tag-long-tailed-tit","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t