Yesterday on the whats around map on Birdforum I noticed a orange square over Rossendale, it stated that a Rough Legged Buzzard had beeen seen by a user known as Den9112.
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=213724
Today he has a thread confirming his identification of the bird and photos on Flickr. All I can say is Den9112 was a very lucky man, as he couldn't have had a better view.
Hi, i spotted the bird around 10.30 am yesterday ,it was wet and misty and all i had to hand was a 18-55mm , my 100-400mm was in for repair it was in the land just past the shore service station garage in shawforth ,OL12 8JB i knew it was something different when i so literally hundreds of crows and magpies surround it ,it was quite a sight ,the bird was wet through and seemed to be strugling to take off it did eventually move up the field in to a gully ....Before i went home for my camera i was in the field about 30ft away from it and it just stared at me ,i first i thought it was a tame bird at first , i must admit it was a joy to see and that eye contact was amazing rlb edit 1 by den9112, on Flickr
I saw this thread on birdforum last night but thought this bird would be somewhere in Bowland or Northern Lancashire. Great photo! I have yet to see one of these.
Well done Den9112 the type of sighting I dream of but never happens. As these are mainly Northern European birds can anyone explain how this fine bird turned up in Shawforth, obviously on a Southern migration but I never realised they came this far, amazing.