Le plumage du Busard des roseaux – Circus aeruginosus – La femelle se distingue par une tête très claire variant du blanc au crème soutenu et le reste du corps brun foncé avec une bande claire sur le haut de l’aile. Ce rapace se nourrit de tout animal vivant plus petit que lui. The female […]
More photos from the Spanish trip, Crested Tits are delightful to watch and were common in the pinewoods of the region (not far from Alicante), coming to feed and drink at the various feeding stations on the reserve. A bird I have seen quite often in Scotland but never managed to get any decent photographs. […]
Crossbills photographed on the recent Spanish trip, not a common species at all down here in Cornwall/Devon, I see them once in a while. But where we were in Spain one of the first to arrive at the pools, usually hearing them before they come down to drink and mostly in small groups. Their crossed […]
A great week with five friends from Cornwall in the Spanish countryside, based in the old town of Bocairent,( not to far from Alicante) for the annual congress of the International Federation of Wildlife Photography. The highlight of the trip had to be close views of Golden Eagles, seeing them in their natural habitat like […]
I was thankful for the opportunity to photograph this rare species and moreover both sexes, but what a pity to speak about it in the past tense in France: the last pair was seen in the Pyrenees in 1996. The 2 birds are black (female dark brown) and the tail has a white strip. It […]
This migratory bird, first recorded in 1585, spends the winter in tropical Africa and nests in hollow trees or in walls, feeds on ants and their larvae but also on different insects and berries. One of the smallest Picidae species it is about 17cm (6.7in) in length. When excited it uses its neck in snake-wise […]
Blackcaps are quite stocky birds, about the size of house sparrows. They are mainly light grey-brown in colour with the male having a neat black cap on its head, while the female’s cap is chestnut-brown. In summer, recently fledged young also have a chestnut-brown cap, with young males gaining their black cap by late autumn. […]
Madrid’s regional government is to double its compensation fund for farmers who lose animals to wolves after a steep increase in fatal attacks in the last year. Wolves, hunted to the brink of extinction over the past seven decades, have begun to reappear in the region in recent years. Their return has been most keenly […]
Galerida cristata – Everybody knows the Disney cartoon character Beep beep inspired by the American Roadrunner… well to me this is the bird that resembles it the most in Europe!! It is usually common in Spain but this summer it seemed they were fewer. Cochevis huppé – A mon avis voici l’oiseau qui s’en approche […]
Five people were hurt, including one seriously, at Spain’s famed San Fermin running of the bulls festival, which was also marred by five arrests over allegations of sexual assault, authorities said. Those hurt fell as they were chased by six rampaging bulls on a two-and-a-half minute dash through the narrow streets of Pamplona on the […]
The black-winged kite (Elanus caeruleus) is a small diurnal bird of prey in the family Accipitridae best known for its habit of hovering over open grasslands in the manner of the much smaller kestrels. The black-winged kite is a species primarily of open land and semi-deserts in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical Asia, but it has […]
The world’s most endangered feline species, the Iberian lynx, is making a comeback in Spain after being pushed to the brink of extinction. But the costly efforts to reintroduce the spotted cat into the wild face an unexpected enemy – cars. The number of lynx killed by collisions with vehicles has soared since Spain’s economic […]
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 […]
