Venus Pool - Marsh Harrier!!

I'm glad I didn't rush off after the Chats fizzled away in the distance as a dark winged raptor soon grabbed my attention! I was initially getting broken views as it quartered on the skyline! It had to be a Marsh Harrier, even at distance, typical flight pattern and very long tail...

Shame about the white sky!! At this point I thought it was disappearing

But it reappeared an minute or so later and gave a half decent pass...

This image holds a lot of information - fresh uniform plumage, pale tips to the greater and primary coverts, all of which point to a juvenile bird.

There's a bit of sunlight artefact going on in this next image, the brown of the wing transformed to grey. However, that single grey 'new' tail feather is constant in all the images and that suggests it must be a male? A female would moult brown...

More distant but this was the last I could photograph it as it flew into the sun which had now belatedly peeked out!!

Move over Whinchats, you are easily trumped by this new bird of the day!