All but one of a flock of about 15 rare Short-toed Eagles [Ajkli Bojod] spotted on Saturday evening in the outskirts of Siġġiewi are believed to have been shot dead, BirldLife said. In a statement on Monday, the NGO said the rare birds were observed settling in the outskirts of Siġġiewi and Rabat for the […]
Tag: Booted Eagle
North-west China (Xinjiang) – 6th May (Day 16)
Today was on a knife edge, and stress levels in the group were high, we had two endemic birds to see and only around three hours in which to see them – it could go well or horribly wrong. If the latter then the only bird I would have gained from the Luntain part of […]
Booted eagle
Aigle botté – Aguila calzada, Hieraaetus pennatus, Spain, 2017/08/24, Nikon: D500 + 800 mm f5/6E, This migratory eagle nests in southern Europe and winters in Africa and Asia. With a friend we arrived at the spot very early and he had assured me that the weather report said bright and sunny after a small […]
The Levante winds of Spring – Spain 2017
I lead a tour group from the the US Audubon Naturalist Society in April to southern Spain. We had a great time apart from the awful windy weather. The famous Levante wind just would not stop for almost the whole eight days. We did however have a great time, saw lots of birds and other […]
Highlights from this year’s Spring Tour on The Strait of Gibraltar – April 2015
Here’s a quick photo summary of some of the birds we watched down in Andalucia on one of my spring birdwatching tours. Each spring we offer such small tour group holidays to go out in the field and see what bird species are arriving from Africa. The close proximity of the two continents makes this […]
Melanistic Montagu’s Harrier and other Raptors
Here are some of the raptor photos we managed to see with my Swiss group from Arcatour last week. The wind direction swung around to give us moderate to strong Levante (easterlies) for five days and only died down on our last two days. Still, knowing what the migrating raptors do and where they will […]
Rüppell’s Vulture Sightings in Europe
After watching a huge flock of Griffon Vultures circling over the evergreen cork-oak canopy of the vast Alcornocales Parque Natural we eventually saw many birds descend down to the ground and out of sight. We could hear their hissing and squabbling and immediately knew that the birds were feeding at an animal carcass of some […]
Migrating Raptors on The Strait of Gibraltar
It’s been a busy six weeks with almost non-stop birding here on The Strait and across Europe. I thought I’d quickly post some of the raptor shots I have managed to edit so far on the blog to show at least some of the autumn delights… Black-winged Kites (old name is Black shouldered Kite) have […]