Tag Archives: Extremadura

New Gallery: Birds

Dear all,

After thinking a lot about it, I have finished the photo selection for a new theme gallery and it is the time to show it to you: it’s the “Birds” gallery.

At the “Birds” gallery you’ll find some photos taken during short travels or one-day trips, which are not included into the galleries dedicated to the “places”.

Some of them have been included in previous posts, so you maybe remember them, however most of them weren’t published till now.

The photos from this gallery were taken at the following places:

  • Andújar: when I go there to try to see the Iberian Lynx I take the opportunity to photograph the little birds that visit the bird feeder that a local photographer has. I really thank him for his kindness and hard work.

EI20131203-6206_EI

  • Parc Natural del Delta del Llobregat: close to the Barcelona airport, I go there from time to time, to do a quick trip on the morning or on the afternoon. It’s amazing being able to enjoy this little “oasis” at few minutes from home (by car).

EI20150419-3206_EI

 

  • Extremadura: a one-week tryp around the region. The photos where taken at the Monfragüe National Park, the Barruecos and the Sierra de San Pedro (the last ones taken from one of the Photo Raptor’s hides).

EI20140418_MG_8246_EI

  • Farne Islands, Seahouses and St. Abbs Head: another one-week tryp, this time a bit further, to the UK.

EI20140616_MG_1822_EI

You can leave your comments into the form below.

Many thanks for taking the time to have a look at them. I wish you enjoy them.

See you soon!

Esther

Posted in [:ca]Notícies[:es]Noticias[:en]News[:], Aus, Extremadura, Galleries, Regne Unit Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Extremadura

Last April I went to Extremadura, where I visited the Monfragüe National Park and its surroundings; the Caceres plains, Los Barruecos, La Serena and I also did a hide session at the ones from Photo Raptors, located in Sierra de San Pedro, close to the Portugal border.

The Monfragüe National Park gave us the opportunity of seing a big number of nesting species. It is an amazing place to do birdwatching, even from the car parks located along the road that crosses the park. We saw: white stork (ciconia ciconia), black stork (ciconia nigra), griffon vulture (gyps fulvus), black vulture (aegypius monachus), Egyptian vulture (neophron pernopterus), Eurasian eagle owl (bubo bubo), booted eagle (hieraaetus pennatus) and Spanich imperial eagle (aquila aldalberti), among others.

Monfrague

At the Caceres plains we could see little bustard (tetrax tetrax) and great bustard (otis tarda). We also saw a few European rollers (coracias garrulus).

The visit to Los Barruecos was a bit stressfull: there were a big number of people (spanish) who not respect nature. There were no guards and most of the people were screaming, running or going too close to the nests, despite of the posted signs. It was so clear that they were disturbing the white storks, because some of them start flying as soon as people get too close, leaving the nest alone, which could compromise the eggs/chicks. The place is so nice, but if the human preassure is always like this…

EI20140417_MG_7818

The morning session at the hide from Photo Raptors was amazing. It was my first time in a hide like this; I did a few in the past in a portable hide, at a feeder, but nothing compared with this one. This hide offers the possibility of being turned to choose the background and the light direction, and as it has 2 levels, it is also possible to choose if you want to stay up or down. The upper part is better for flights and the lower to take photos of the birds on the ground… we choose down. It seemed that nothing was coming at the beginning… but after half an hour a common raven (corvus corax) came and, just after it, a Spanish imperial eagle (aquila aldarberti) came. After then, it became busier and some black vultures (aegypius monachus), griffon vultures (gyps fulvus) and a Egyptian vulture (neophron pernopterus) came.

Black Vulture

The number of vultures, not only griffon vulture but also black vulture, increased and it draw my attention the way they measured their strength among them, to decide which one started eating the carrion. Sometimes it was enough to approach one each other: it was so clear which was the most experimented one so the other one moved away like accepting its inferiority. At other occasions the strenght difference was not so evident so it was necessary to open the wings and sometimes to show one of the legs, like showing their “weapons”. Finally, on those cases when the strengths were so similar they had to do a small attack, in the air, very close to the ground, usually with the two legs on the front… it never went any further.

Griffon Vulture

A small group of azure-winged magpies (cyanopica cyanus) also did a short visit. Some black kites (milvus migrans), came sometimes, in pairs, and the Spanish imperial eagle come back several times. A small group of sparrows came to collect some feathers for their nests.

Having all these species so close and seeing how they interacted was a quite interesting experience I recommend to everybody.

Posted in [:ca]Notícies[:es]Noticias[:en]News[:], Aus, Extremadura Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |