Warm SE winds but a disapointing start in the bushes which seemed relativly quiet. I eventually came across a pocket of activity in the enclousure, South Foreland: 2 Pied Flycatchers, 5 Spotted Flyctchers a handful of Willow Warbler.
Yellow Wagtails and hirundines were moving as were the first numbers of Swifts Ive seen for a week or two. Green Sandpiper and Ringed Plover also heard overhead but there seemed a distanct lack of Raptors. A kettle of Common Buzzards moved West just inland of Fan Bay but the highlight of the day was picked up over the water just off langdon hole as I walked home.
A pale juvenile Honey Buzzard was arriving at Langdon hole as HBs do in the spring and summer. The bird circled a few times over the cliffs and moved West inland as they all do when arriving on this line.
Thrilling! but doesnt qite compete with LP’s 8 East over Beachy head today. Presumably either a continental bird or a bird heading south turning back and coming back in.
Another Pied Flycatcher was in the dead ash tree on Foxhill down en route home.
PERDIX BIRDER 
The bird in your photo looks more likely to me to be a fresh juvenile. Although missing a secondary in the left wing it doesn’t appear to be in moult and is otherwise fresh. According to the literature, juvenile Honey Buzzards remain in Africa for their first summer and return to Europe only as adults. A second-calendar-year would be truly an exceptional record! In Sweden, there is only one documented summer/autumn record of a first-summer bird, from Falsterbo in September 2020.
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Hi there, yes the bird is a juvenile from this years breeding season and no suggestion is made that it is 2cy. (The blogpost is called pale juvenile HB and the word juv used several times)It arrived off the sea in the way that many HBs do here but that has nothing to do with its age. All the best
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