After a leisurely morning in the seaside resort of Salema, today was my last chance on this trip to see Griffon Vultures in numbers. Arriving at Cabranosa around 1-00pm, it wasn't long before Martin Hodges received a call from the guys at the wind farm, to say around 140 Griffons were making their way towards us. My first impression was similar to a swarm of midges as the flock of juvenile Griffon Vultures spiralled slowly towards the Sagres peninsula. It took quite a while before they reached reasonable viewing range, like an advancing army! In the flock, we were picking out Egyptian Vultures and the odd Booted Eagle when panic ensued from the direction of Martin Hodges. He had picked out, no less than a Steppe Eagle heading towards us, much closer than the Griffons.
The significance of this bird meant it would be a first for the Cabranosa watching area. I was trying to photograph the eagle in a tricky white sky and without shaking with the ongoing excitement!! It soon became apparent that the Steppe Eagle had some lengths of leather attached to its legs, which meant that sadly for all of us, the bird must be an escaped captive. I have since learnt from Martin that the Steppe Eagle is in fact, an escape from Malaga Zoo. Comments are closed.
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