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 […]
Tag: Lesser Kestrel
Plenty of migrants – Jubail
Whilst birdwatching the Jubail area at the end of March I saw a lot of good birds and plenty of migrants. Unfortunately the weather was very poor and photography was difficult so most species remained un-photographed. The weather this winter has been very wet and windy and the morning drive to Jubail was through a […]
Lesser Kestrel shot for preservation
Armed with telescopic lenses, 24 West Bank photographers took to the Jerusalem wilderness for a two day photoshoot, zooming in on Palestine’s Lesser Kestrel Falco naumanni. Sponsored by the Middle Eastern HIMA Fund, these passionate paparazzi snapped over a thousand pictures, framing the small falcon for future generations to admire. This photogenic initiative was part […]
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 […]
Rain of Birds at last…
This spring has been very strange. After such a rainy winter with 4-6 floods in the southern Arava, we all expected that the desert will be filled with migrants. Then came March and by the end of it we were still looking hard to find birds in the Arava. Nevertheless there were many quality species […]
Eagles and Harriers
March seemed to be a good time for Marsh Harriers and Greater Spotted Eagles down in the Dubai Pivot fields. Whilst I am used to seeing many Harriers this time of year, Greater Spotted Eagles are a different story. Whilst fairly common down the road at the Ras Al Khor sanctuary, in my experience this […]
Great Bustard: the great show in the plains
The Great Bustard (Otis tarda) is one of the largest and most spectacular European birds. Mature males can attain a wingspan of 2,4 meters and a weight of 18 kg, and are among the world’s heaviest flying birds; only its African relative the Kori Bustard and the Mute Swan can dispute that title. Females are […]
Spring alive…
Birding is such a great activity, always surprises, lots of interesting stuff and interesting people you meet along the way. Last Monday we added to the ringing team at the IBRCE Roger Riddington and Will Miles who came for 10 days of ringing and birding with us.Will is visiting the ringing station for the second […]
Vejer’s Lesser Kestrels
It’s been a busy week for early breeding birds both in the countryside and up in the white villages that dot the Andalucian countryside and are perched on ancient defensive sites. Our Lesser Kestrels have been back for a few weeks and the brighter weather obviously helped them to get into the mood once again […]
