Short-toed Eagle!

Romelaere, St Omer - warm, dry and sunny, sw 3 - Well, well, well, I was expecting a quiet day birding in northern France with Chris Philpot when at midday a large raptor hove into view from the north as we were watching Marsh Harriers. I immediately called "Osprey", until that is I got onto it in the scope and it banked around looking a whole lot different: a large eagle-like raptor with pale grey and white underparts, contrasting dark head with a broken necklace band, a whitish band around the upper rump onto the belly, darker wing tips on the underside and a banded tail. As the bird approached and flew overhead we both called, "Short-toed Eagle"! I then fumbled around with the bridge camera to get off a few shots, of which only the one below was of any use, albeit in silhouette.
  Over the course of the next three hours we watched the bird at some distance and into the light, so mostly in silhouette, soaring on flattish wings and at times appearing to hang in the strengthening wind, sometimes dangling its legs; when gliding the carpals were pressed forward as in the pic below.
Other raptors seen through the day included five Marsh Harriers, several Common Buzzards, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and Hobby.

                                Short-toed Eagle over Romelaere

  Moving onto less unexpected fare, yet still of interest was a colony of five pairs of Cattle Egrets with 15 well grown juveniles in willow tree nests. When we visited site back in April none were present in the mixed Cormorant/Little Egret tree colony, which means the Cattle Egrets must`ve colonised after the others had finished breeding, probably from June onwards.
  Other birds noted on the reserve: White Stork, Spoonbill, Great White Egret, Kingfisher, Whimbrel, Jay, Marsh Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Swifts, hirundines and mixed tit and Chiffchaff flocks with Blackcaps and Lesser Whitethroats.
  A superb day out that will live long in the memory for the snake eagle, and many thanks to Chris for driving.

                                Cattle Egret colony, Romelaere