Pallid Harrier, Burpham, West Sussex: 23 September

Throughout the week I'd managed to put the idea in my head of twitching the juvenile Pallid Harrier in West Sussex if it hung around (I'd seen Pallid Harrier in Britain before but never seen a juvenile anywhere). Despite my valiant efforts at resisting a flithy twitch, this afternoon I found myself scanning a huge area of the South Downs just north of the village of Burpham. After about an hour the bird was found sitting on the ground at the edge of a field preening.

Even partially obscured on the ground, the well defined pale cinnamon-buff neck collar contrasting with the dark brown 'boa' and facial markings and crown was obvious. In flight the plain rich cinnamon underparts and under wing-coverts contrasting with the blackish secondaries and the white, blackish barred primaries and black and white barred tail made for a striking bird. On the underwing, the secondaries looked so dark at times that it was difficult to see the barring on them (on Monte's the barring on the secondaries is more obvious), but the inner primaries didn't appear as pale as I expected, being grey rather than white, and actually appeared quite dark at times (compare photos 1 and 3). The buff scapulars and pale tips to the upper wing-coverts were also obvious in flight.

Throughout the afternoon the bird covered a huge area and would disappear for long periods, sometimes appearing quite high overhead (even mobbing a Red Kite at one point). When it did show at close range the heat haze prevented me from getting any sharp images, but what a fantastic bird!

Also seen were 1 male Hen Harrier, 6+ Red Kite, c10 Common Buzzard, 4 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Northern Wheatear, c20 Meadow Pipit, 6 Chiffchaff, c100 Barn Swallow moving south, c20 House Martin and a Sand Martin.

As nuts as I feel for driving for 1.5 hours for a bird I don't even 'need', when I could have been seeing bugger all at the moor instead like a normal well-rounded individual (?), at least I can console myself as not being as far gone as the good friend of mine (who shall remain nameless) who sent me this text this morning: Am considering flying Bristol to Inverness on Sunday lunchtime returning Monday lunchtime for crane. Cost would be £120 rtn plus hire car and fuel split plus Travelodge room share, probably with three, £170 quid. Any takers, or have I lost the plot?

That's crazy talk!