What Bird of Prey was this in the New Forest?
Discussion
Hi,
My girlfriend and I just went out for a drive through the New Forest as we often do during our lunch break, especially on such a lovely day like today!
We were driving along, I wasn’t taking much notice at this point of what was on the grass either side of the road as I was motoring along quite quickly. However, something big on the grass moved and it caught my eye. I first though it was a fox or something as it was orangey in colour and very large. I slowed the car right down and it walked out from some heather. It was a huge bird of prey, but I don’t know what.
Now, it was in the New Forest, Hampshire, on short grass on a fairly open bit of land. Next to where it was walking is a train track on a raised bank and a few trees and heather bushes along the side of it. It quickly flew up to the small trees and shrubs on the bank and sat there for a while. I had stopped the car by this point so I got out to see what it was. As I did it flew out of the tree and away, must have had a wing span of almost 2m. I assume it was trying to pick mice and shrews from the train track.
From the quick glance at it I had I would say that it was quite a sleek powerful looking bird, it didn’t have a long neck, not like the big bustards we often see round here. It was orangey brown, with a sharp hooked beak, which was quite large. I saw it from a distance and I couldn’t see it’s leg colour or if it had any other coloured features. Size is really difficult to gauge but it looked bigger than almost any other bird I have seen and it reminded me a bit of a big Eagle. It was big enough to grab my attention whilst driving!
Any ideas on what it could have been? I’m really intrigued to know.
Many thanks,
Dan
My girlfriend and I just went out for a drive through the New Forest as we often do during our lunch break, especially on such a lovely day like today!
We were driving along, I wasn’t taking much notice at this point of what was on the grass either side of the road as I was motoring along quite quickly. However, something big on the grass moved and it caught my eye. I first though it was a fox or something as it was orangey in colour and very large. I slowed the car right down and it walked out from some heather. It was a huge bird of prey, but I don’t know what.
Now, it was in the New Forest, Hampshire, on short grass on a fairly open bit of land. Next to where it was walking is a train track on a raised bank and a few trees and heather bushes along the side of it. It quickly flew up to the small trees and shrubs on the bank and sat there for a while. I had stopped the car by this point so I got out to see what it was. As I did it flew out of the tree and away, must have had a wing span of almost 2m. I assume it was trying to pick mice and shrews from the train track.
From the quick glance at it I had I would say that it was quite a sleek powerful looking bird, it didn’t have a long neck, not like the big bustards we often see round here. It was orangey brown, with a sharp hooked beak, which was quite large. I saw it from a distance and I couldn’t see it’s leg colour or if it had any other coloured features. Size is really difficult to gauge but it looked bigger than almost any other bird I have seen and it reminded me a bit of a big Eagle. It was big enough to grab my attention whilst driving!
Any ideas on what it could have been? I’m really intrigued to know.
Many thanks,
Dan
Was it like any of these: http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source...
Simpo Two said:
Was it like any of these: http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source...
It's a bit far from home if it was 
What a beast.
tonyvid said:
Simpo Two said:
Was it like any of these: http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&source...
It's a bit far from home if it was What a beast.
Perhaps it was a red kite, it's just it didn't look as orange as it does on the Google images, it looked more like the tan goldy colour of the Golden Eagle.
It was an awesome bird whatever it was!
Thanks for your help PH investigation crew.
John MacK said:
What was its tail like?
If it was forked < it could have been a red kite.
Difficult to tell. It was walking along the ground, then I parked my car up and I lost it. After getting out and walking around it flew out of the small trees and away into the distance. It didn't fly particularly high, nor fast, clearly wasn't in a hurry, just wanted to be a bit further away from me. Because it was flying away and not very high I couldn't see it's wing shape or tail shape, just a kind of behind shape! If it was forked < it could have been a red kite.
danyeates said:
I just thought I was being stupid seeing one down on the south coast!
Probably escaped from a zoo....Or, more seriously, somewhere like the Hawk Conservancy. I grew up near there and they were always losing birds.
Highly unlikely to be a Golden Eagle - there's only 400 or so breeding pairs in the UK and the majority are in Scotland. Although there have been rumoured sightings in Cumbria.
Unless one's escaped from a falconry, of course. Unlikely though, as they're smart enough to know they have a reliable food source.
One thing that distinguishes eagles on the ground, particular Goldens, is that they look f
king ridiculous 
They almost waddle.
Unless one's escaped from a falconry, of course. Unlikely though, as they're smart enough to know they have a reliable food source.
One thing that distinguishes eagles on the ground, particular Goldens, is that they look f
king ridiculous They almost waddle.from memory i think the Red Kite is a scavenger and not a bird of prey, weird for a bird of its size n looks, got them up here today as well, near Newcastle
think they were re released after almost going extinct, somewhere around the Oxforshire area I beleive.
think they were re released after almost going extinct, somewhere around the Oxforshire area I beleive.
Edited by Pvapour on Monday 8th March 15:14
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