My first ever "dip"

On the 22nd June, we decided to take a detour home from a weekend in Portsmouth to try and see the Short Toed Eagle that had moved into the Ashdown Forest.  After the 40 mile detour, we arrived at the packed car park and a lot of despondent birders as the bird had not been seen since early that morning.  We decided to stick around, have lunch, then an icecream, then wait for 1.5 hours but then my birder's wife got bored and went for a walk.  Just as she disappeared on her walk, there was great excitement when a light and largish bird appeared for a brief moment before going over the ridge, many claimed it was the Eagle.  I only got a brief glimpse of it but was never convinced especially as no one reported it on the bird news services for about 45 minutes.  After another 30 minutes wait, my birder's wife returned from her amble and we decided to go for a drive, taking in a few more of the local car parks and a Tree Pipit before trekking back home and almost spending the night on the nightmare known as the M25.

After checking the new services that night when we got back, the bird never reappeared and over the coming days many messages appeared on social media stating that the bird seen was a pale morph Buzzard, I agree.  Since then, the Eagle has reappeared at other locations but I have not been bothered to go and see it (yet).