Saturday 11th December - The Eagle has landed

I got back from Anne's around mid-morning and had vaguely planned to get organised for the trip to Sri Lanka next week. About half a mile from the house a Snipe was on the verge of the road looking extremely lost, certainly the first of its kind I've had in the vicinity. I went into Haslemere, and on the way back heard that 10 Waxwings had appeared in exactly the same part of town I was in at the same time, but my laps of the area were to no avail as they had obviously moved swiftly through. So got home about 1pm..ish saw a group of 9 Lapwings fly over the house and then heard that a White-tailed Eagle had been seen at Amberley Wild Brooks and only about a 20 minute drive , so thoughts of packing were relegated - A real rarity in inland Southern Britain, my first ever White-tailed Eagle was also an inland bird in Oxfordshire in Feb 1984. Ditching the chores, I headed to Rackham where it's a short walk out to view the brooks. Several cars were already parked there and I wandered through the woods to a viewing point, half a dozen birders were already there but they hadn't seen the bird. Not knowing quite where all the other occupants of the cars had headed, I just decided to scan and soon picked up the Eagle at the top of a tree in the middle of the brooks. It was fairly distant but on full scope power showed well enough to give views of the features, it was not a full adult but difficult to age as quite a bit of white was in the tail. After about 30 mins and being hassled by corvids it took flight, a great barn door of a bird,  but at least a dozen corvids were frantically mobbing it and soon it pitched down in long grass. It could be just seen walking and after another 10 mins took off and flew again but no nearer and still with the accompanyment of the crow family. It was about 3pm and with the bird out of view already the light was dim, so I headed off pleased I'd seen this fantastic bird and really hope it hangs around for others to see.  As well as the Wigeon, Teal and Shoveler on the brooks I saw 2 Firecrest on the walk back to the car.