Whilst out Saturday photographing deer on the New Forest I was walking between woods across a heath in 20mph gusty S.W. wind, when I first saw a Harrier above me then turned and saw another one, then another and another eventually FIVE in all using the wind and angling their wings and bodies to accelerate to great speeds then just hold station with no wing beats at all.
They were low enough that I could see their heads swiveling from side to side.Their wing colours from below appeared white and black but a gorgeous golden brown on top as were some of their bodys with some striking white patches around their throats and just before the tail, but some of their bodies were a very light colour to the whole underside, some were pale grey. They swooped twisted and turned and covered great distances in a short space of time. Then as quick as they arrived they were back over from the direction they came and then completly dissapered.
My camera was set up for any any long distance deer i might had encounterd with a 300 lens with a 2x converter on so I knew that I would probably be waisting my time shooting but even if only one was in focus it would have been my first harrier capture so I kept going.
Although none of these shots are realy passable it may help to see wing, body and tail shapes, in, as I said, a quite strong wind and may help the mystery of Jason Greens BOP.
My question is, is it unusual to see 5 of these stunning birds in the air at the same time ?
Regards
Rob