Purple patch on my Patch (What a bird ) !!

A Patch birder like I am is someone that does one or 2 or in my case about 3 local patches and goes week in week out and records the birds good or bad and in the main bad that you see along the way ,when others fire all over the country for mega rarities , I in general ignore all that nonsense and go my own way,and keep grilling the same areas in the hope that every now and then I find a real rarity has happened on one of my patches yesterday.
Most of you will have read of the decline in the uk of Hen Harriers due to persecution on the grouse moors which they breed . They have been shot,poisoned into almost extinction to save the Grouse that are released on the great private moorlands across Lancashire ,Yorkshire and Scotland ,just so people can go and shoot as many grouse as they can on the Glorious 12th. A few years ago it got to the point were there were no nesting pairs left in England and only the Isle of Man and Western Scotland still held breeding pairs,this year due to many interventions by conservation groups about 25 pairs were successful in fledging young ,although since then many have disappeared or been found shot, and even radio tagged birds just vanish into thin air in areas of North Lancashire and west Yorkshire ,obviously due to poisoning or shooting.
Anyway think of the thrill I got when I was doing one of my patches yesterday and a Juvenile Hen Harrier flew past me and started hunting along some grassland on my patch ,I watched it on and off for 4 hours ,it was a unringed bird and as all uUK young are ringed it would most likely be a migrant from West Scotland or the far North of Europe or Russia ,but to see a young one flying happily free and feeding was a great thrill.
The last time I saw one feed so close was over 40 years ago on chat moss with Frank Horrocks . At some points the bird was 20 feet off ,but if I moved to take a shot it would be off in a flash ,so most of the time I could only watch .The shots were a bonus ,so I didn't care how they came out as they were just the icing on the cake and it was still present today,so maybe it will stay a while before heading to the Dee Estuary marshes which is a bit of a winter stronghold for them.
shot 2 ,Nature and industry in one shot -showing that Nature even rare birds like the Hen Harrier still find a place even among the worst of human environments.

Hen Harrier - Juvenile

Hen Harrier - Female / Imm by John Tymon, on Flickr

Hen Harrier - Juvenile (Nature and Industry)

Hen Harrier - Fem/Imm (Nature and Industry) by John Tymon, on Flickr

Ah yes, Frank himself. What a chap.

Big ticks for a fine and special bird.

Wow absolutely fantastic

Belting,love the second shot putting the bird in its habitat.

Brilliant and well deserved,I prefer the 2nd one too.

Fine shots and good narrative too.

still present today ,so my guess it will be off tonight with the change of weather

another of it Hunting here in the last light

Hen Harrier - Female / Immature by John Tymon, on Flickr

Fabulous bird and the 2nd shot is a bit special.

I think they are all good including the last one added with a good narrative.

2nd pic by a mile, the context makes it.

That second shot is a stunner