Any birds of prey experts on here?

Not sure what i saw but was quite an impressive sight.
Dark coloured wings with a hint of white on it with a huge wingspan.
Wasnt too high up but appeared to be catching a wind draft to gain height.

Buzzard perhaps?

 

Draw us a sketch of it Tatts with a bit more detail.

 

feathers n a beak n talons.

 

What colour was its beak?

 

Not sure of beak colour.

Was much bigger than a kestral.

 

Where abarts?

Sounds like a Buzzard to me though. Undersides of the wings can have lots of white on em to no white so looking at pics can be deceptive.





(not my pics )

 

How far away was it from you.

By the way its spelt Kestrel just to save Bliv a job like.

 

Same shape as those pics but a tad darker in colour.

Wasn't flying too high to be honest. Just amazed at its size. Was between junction 41 and 40 of M1 so couldn't really stop to take in the view.

 

99 % certain it'll be a Buzzard then as I've seen em up there while driving (trying not to crash ).

They can be all brown under the wing and they seem to be taking over the motorway verges from Kestrels. (Buzzards are now the most common bird of prey in the UK having taken the top spot from Kezzies.)

 

It was probably a buzzard looking for the highest point in Barnsley.

 

if the tail was this shape \_/ then they were kites,there are loads about and they are scavengers thats why they were hanging around near the side of the motorway.

 

Never seen Kites up the M1 but I've seen em up the A1 near Whetherby. MASSIVE they are

You do get reports from lots of places for Kites and they are definitely spreading. Never seen one round here but there's been reports over Elsecar and Old Moor in the last year.


EDIT: Red Kite spotted over Harley/Wentworth on Sunday.

 

Plenty of kites in Wetherby like you say, I see one more or less every time I use those roads. Also saw a Buzzard last Monday nr Ripon, it was huge, got a really good view of it too as it was low level in the road as we came round a corner, it swooped on and up right in front of us, must have been 2ft from the windscreen before it pulled away from us.

 

Took my parents to LBA last year in the middle of the night and on the Knaresborough bypass I saw a massive owl on one of the signs on a roundabout, and I mean massive. Always wondered what type it was because I didn't think they got that big. See a couple near our house but a lot smaller.

 

There are loads of Red Kites around the Harrogate/Wetherby/North Leeds area after they were reintroduced in pairs to the wild following a conservation project in 1999. There's often one circling over my house... I just hope the cat doesn't decide to have a nap in the back garden or he might get mistaken for dead and carried off!

 

I've seen that owl Rich... I work on Sandbeck near the roundabouts and sometimes leave the car there on night games if our kid is driving

 

Ayup gaz. It's a big fecker isn't it. It spooked me out, seemed to watch me with eyes as big as dinner plates as I went passed it. Wouldn't want to piss it off, it could probably carry me off.

 

The largest native owl is the Tawny which is just over a foot in height.

There is now, however, a small population of Eagle owls nesting in the country (there's arguments about whether they have escaped from captivity or are here naturally), I don't know if there are any in the Knaresborough area but I do know that there used to be a pair in the north York moors, there was a BBC programme about it a few years ago. They are huge though, about 2ft 6 in length, they can catch prey up to the size of buzzards. I wouldn't mess with one.