East Hendred 18th January

A good candidate for 1st-winter Rough-legged Buzzard seen very briefly this afternoon at 14:30 (from car), perched in wet field at west end of East Hendred, north of A417. Around 15-20m from the road and therefore offering decent naked eye views, showed nice uniform buffish upper parts and solid black belly. Nice clean demarcation between white under tail coverts and dark grey end-band. Seen a few pale Common Buzzards in the immediate area recently, but nothing like this. Not present half an hour later on return, but mayhem amongst Lapwings and gulls in large field to north of A417 between Ardington and West Hendred - perhaps just a coincidence, but may be worth a further look.