The strong North wind continues to blow, making the sighting of ground birds few and far between. Occasional Pied Flycatchers are seen or heard and other small birds flit hastily between bushes. Booted Eagles are daily at Cabranosa now, making up the majority of passing raptors, perhaps 30 or so on each of the last couple of days. Honey Buzzards and Short-toed Eagles accompany them in lesser numbers and most days have produced 3 or 4 Egyptian Vultures. The juvenile Black Vulture was seen to the East mid-morning but again, failed to make an appearance over Cabranosa. The wind is tiring the young raptors and yesterday, we watched this Short-toed Eagle resting in a Stone Pine to the North of Cabranosa. This afternoon a Booted Eagle also took a few moments to stop off in the trees at Cabranosa. The raptors fly much lower in these strong winds and it makes a nice change to see much more of the upperparts on these beautiful eagles, as is the case with this Short-toed Eagle followed by the Egyptian Vultures. A routine shot of a passing Sparrowhawk turned out to be a juvenile Goshawk this morning. The streaks on the underparts being vertical (horizontal on Sparrowhawk) being the best identification. Booted Eagles continued to show all day, in both dark and light forms. The star bird of the day went to a 1st winter Dotterel which proved to be not the easiest individual to locate. I had been given an approximate position by Magnus Robb who had found the Dotterel an hour earlier, in the fields South of Vale Santo. Dotterel tend to occur each year around here, usually as single birds. I set off with Chris, the short way from Cabranosa and looked into the fields, beset with heat haze and a howling wind. In time, the Dotterel showed magnificently, at a range of 75 metres as can be seen below!! Like everywhere else, the wind was keeping birds hidden and this Dotterel was certainly well down in the vegetation with only the back of its head showing. It took some time before Chris had his first real look at this stunning plover with its huge pale supercilium extending over the head . Nice one!!!
Tonight, the wind is due to subside and tomorrow could bring a new show of birds. Comments are closed.
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