Can you tell what it is yet?

[Neils]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4109/5610829083_d4ae7a5eaa_b.jpg

Not related to beekeeping funnily enough :D

[EmsE]

a baby snowy owl?

[Neils]

Close enough methinks

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5268/5610833937_c4888943ff_b.jpg

[Neils]

Should eventually grow up to look like:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5305/5610802131_af1c550d5b_b.jpg

[Neils]

This phone really doesn't like editing posts on here.

I figured there'd be a least a couple if guesses but evidently nothing gets past you Esme :D

[gavin]

I've been a bit internet-deprived for the last 24 hrs but otherwise I'd have been right in there with ...

.... sea eagle taking a dump from 2,000 feet after eating one too many lambs?

What is it trying to say with the rather camp bent-wing gesture?

[EmsE]

:) I think it'll be the only 'guess what' that I'll get right though.

[Neils]

I've been a bit internet-deprived for the last 24 hrs but otherwise I'd have been right in there with ...

.... sea eagle taking a dump from 2,000 feet after eating one too many lambs?

What is it trying to say with the rather camp bent-wing gesture?

Eagles?

Done...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5225/5610862361_cb4ea6fec8_b.jpg

[gavin]

Pah! Call that an eagle?!

We have *proper* eagles up here and not even a Scotsman could keep one of them on his arm. He'd fall over. Our local eagles have a wingspan of 2.5 metres ....

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51796000/jpg/_51796162_004772628-1.jpg

Saw one of these flying barn doors very near the apiary last summer, and apparently he is very often to be seen just a short walk to the S of where I'm sitting now.

[Neils]

It wasn't being held it was taking one of the bystanders!

Cross of a golden and Russian steppe eagle apparently. Cue nervous glances to the field of lambing sheep when it flew. :)

[Jimbo]

No Eagles but a pair of Ospreys and a pair of Peregrines at one of my apairy sites

[gavin]

I hope that you are not two-timing us with all this raptor talk Nellie? Bees are the thing, and raptors don't make honey - just remember that. OK, they may catch you a rabbit or two, but that hardly counts.

Ospreys and peregrines are worth a boast or two. Jimbo, I visited the apiary of a mutual acquaintance last summer and he had a family of goshawks squawking from trees nearby.

Oh, and a bee tree well to the west of here (a bit nearer you in fact) that has featured on another forum had damaged exposed comb which was ascribed to the local honey buzzard.

[Jon]

raptors don't make honey - just remember that.

In Mexico the honey is always labelled 'miel de abeja' ie bee honey.

Never a man to let a tautological statement slip by without comment, I have enquired whether they have honey from any other creature such as a goat. I'll ask about the raptors next time I have the chance. 'miel de águila' sounds good.

[Neils]

Not yet, the raptors are definitely confined to "when i get that place in the country" and got enough on my plate with the bees, though his shed was refreshingly clear of huge piles of kit.