OMG Hen Harrier flies across the House!!

We do like to do a bit of bird-spotting here and we've seen a good few rarities - cuckoo, pied flycatcher, golden eagle - but a couple of weeks ago we had a rather exciting day! We are very used to the Red Kites and Buzzards but on this morning there was another large bird of prey flying above the house. After consulting the bird books we came to the conclusion that it must have been a female hen harrier - very rare indeed. 

A few days later we went up to north Wales and, as luck would have it, on a visit to Coed Y Brenin we spotted Iolo Williams (think Welsh version of Chris Packham/Bill Oddie) Obviously I had to ask him if there was any chance that we'd actually seen a Hen Harrier and , yes!!!! They are very well known for spending the winter around Cors Caron Nature Reserve - about 2 miles from the house. Needless to say we are very chuffed at the sighting and can add it to our ever-growing tick list