Nethergong Birding

An evening never to forget! I made a visit to Nethergong around 18:30 last night where my intention was to collect my recorder from the night before and take a quick look from the eastern gate to see if anything could be heard or seen. With some lovely evening sun, I started scanning from the gate where soon after, I become aware of a large bird of prey with some accompanying crows for company. I am used to seeing Buzzards and Marsh Harriers out here perching but for some reason, this just looked a lot bigger despite only having binoculars and viewing at about half a mile range. I was almost convinced to just turn away and concede that it was probably a Buzzard but the thought of seeing a White tailed Eagle on the patch was just too tempting. I decided to take the long walk and hoped that I would be able to identify as I got nearer. 2 Raven were in one of the fields and soon flew up on to the pylons as I past by. As I continued walking nearer, I stopped occasionally to check and after a long walk through the long grass, I was in range and had better views. The bird was sitting back on but now I could see the crows looked very small and a Marsh Harrier passing close by started to get the pulse raising as I had thoughts about what it was going to be. With only my mobile phone on me as the camera was at home, I put on the video and waited. A few steps nearer and the bird flew from the tree and I was amazed but not surprised to see it was indeed a juvenile White tailed Eagle (98) (G461 from the Isle of Wight). If only I had the camera as it flew past, I would have had a few nice images but I had to do with some video. It flew a hundred yards or so towards Grove Ferry before landing on the next pylon along. I made my way back where by now the Ravens were keeping a steady eye on it and as I got a little nearer, I started recording again as it once again flew off with one of the Ravens following. The video is not that good but does at least show the bird and its size and will forever be a lovely memory of a superb bird to see at Nethergong. When I arrived back at the gate, it was perched on another pylon and putting the news out, I made my way up to Upstreet where I was joined by a few birders who all got nice views of the bird perched and in flight. I left for a home very happy knowing others had seen the bird and I had seen a bird of a lifetime on the patch. It may well have roosted nearby as it was seen again this afternoon at Stodmarsh and hopefully, I will receive some flight data from the Roy Dennis Foundation showing the movments of the bird during the day and evening. As far as the night recording went, a fairly quiet night with 3 Redwing, 1 Water Rail and the fifth record this year of Common Scoter migrating overland during the night. Hopefully the night recording will continue to deliver during the week and fingers crossed for a good weekend birding with a few new birds. This night and finding a White tailed eagle will I think be hard to beat. 

Juvenile White tailed Eagle (G461) Click to view full screen

White tailed Eagle (G461) Flight Data (Red dot showing Nethergong) Data courtesy of 

Roy Dennis foundation

Common Scoter