My first visit to Cabranosa of the Autumn proved to have some quite outstanding sightings today. A check on the Vale Santo area before Cabranosa revealed the resident Little Owls are still occupying the old farm buildings. Around the farm were the usual Linnets, a few Spotless Starlings, 2 Yellow Wagtails and a Corn Bunting flew through. The local Red-billed Chough flock appeared, very vocal as usual and numbering around 40 birds. The pines below Cabranosa were busier with small migrants than I remember last year. The trees held plenty of flycatchers, both Pied and Spotted. Subalpine Warblers were noticeable too. 1st w Pied Flycatcher Spotted Flycatchers I joined two of the Portuguese watchers at the Watchpoint and learned that a good number of raptors had already shown up including, 2 Spanish Imperial Eagles, 8 Honey Buzzards, 2 Ospreys and several other species. For some reason, the raptors today were extremely high up, many of them, mere specks in the sky and regrettably my photos will reflect that. My first encounter was a young Egyptian Vulture which seemed to attract other birds to it. Sometimes in company with Booted Eagles, then a couple of Short-toed Eagles. juv Egyptian Vulture I counted 17 Booted Eagle and 7 Short-toed Eagle during my stay, together with 4 Osprey, 2 Common Buzzard and a Peregrine. A good sighting was a thermal of around 40 Black Kite with Booted Eagles, 1 Osprey and 2 juvenile Black Storks. Osprey followed by juv Bonelli's Eagle. juv Bonelli's Eagle, possibly 2nd year bird with dark carpal patches. Same bird. This image shows the juv Bonelli's Eagle (top) and a pale Booted Eagle (below right). An adult Bonelli's Eagle is approaching from the left and what happened next was quite astounding. The adult Bonelli's struck the Booted Eagle and tangled with it for a while until, securely captured, it carried its prey down to the forest ahead of us and was lost in the trees. The juvenile watches as the adult Bonelli's strikes the Booted Eagle. Joined by a second juvenile, the adult (bottom) begins to fly off with the Booted Eagle in its talons. As I said earlier, all this was going on at a considerable height but it was clear to see what was happening. I haven't witnessed anything like it in large raptors, but it clearly happens!
Migration among mainly juveniles will continue here at Sagres for the next couple of months. The Sagres Bird Festival runs from 4th to 8th Oct this year, during which time, there will be seawatching from boats and shore, raptor watching here, and ringing demonstrations at various sites. Comments are closed.
|
|