Rough day with the dodgy wildfowl

My car needed a service this morning, has this got anything to do with birding? No, but I thought I would include it anyway.

After this I went for a look down in Sleddale which is in Cleveland North Yorkshire. It was a fantastic few hours with the highlight being:
-Merlin
-Kestrels
-Buzzards
-2 Peregrines
and 1 cracking Rough-legged Buzzard (lifer 277).

The circumstances under which the Rough-legged Buzzard was found are somewhat humorous. Here was myself and a few others scanning way in the distance and a young man named Harry said something like “Here’s the Peregrine.” Then it was all a bit of a blur when it dawned it was the Rough-legged Buzzard hovering in the air. We had fantastic views as it flew right past us and over into the valley. It allowed us time to study most, if not all the features of Rough-legged Buzzard.

It’s another one of those birds that I looked at in bird books and thought I would never see. Another dream of mine that has now come true.

I brief stint in Chester-le-Street Park at the new wildfowl zoo produced some fantastic views of presumed wild female Mandarin, Whooper Swan, and Scaup. A nice end to a fantastic day!

Until next time, Foghorn out!