In Search Of Bonelli's Eagle - Day 4 Continued

Quarry Hide (afternoon session) - 29.1.20

The morning session now over at the Goshawk hide we head south to an area close to the city of Liria north west of Valencia for an afternoon session in the passerine "Quarry Hide" but first it's a quick stop at the nearby Lidl Superstore to stock up on some food.

Twenty minuets later we are in the "Quarry Hide"located on the edge in of the city sprawl in an area that looks like some small scale quarrying has taken place in the past,  the "permanent" hide being far more luxurious than previous hides sporting some nice swivel chairs and even electric fans ! The birds are ever present, the ones you want see but never managing to get near, but I'm more interested for the next few minuets in devouring my purchases from Lidl and weighing up the shot possibilities.

All the species I was expecting are present but there's is a couple of specialties I'm on the look out for missed earlier in the week, Blue Rock Thrush and Black Wheatear, but it's not long before they turn up. The Blue Rock Thrush makes an appearance in some great light, the blue colour ever changing as the sun dips in and out from behind the cloud, the background for the shot in fact most of the shots are from using the 500 wide open making some loverly bokeh with the pine trees in the distance, almost a green screen !

And that's it my four days in the sun is up, some great birds at some incredibly close distances, a trip I would highly recommend. Special thanks must go to Turia Hides and especially Yanina Maggiotto who has been my guide for the four day trip and has amazed me with her energy turning up at some incredible early hours to make the trip a success..thanks again.

See you all at the end of the year.

Black Redstart - male

Black Redstarts are probably one of the most common birds to be found in Spain during the winter literally they are everywhere around the urbanisations, the drab females seemingly more common than the photogenic males. I was hoping to get images of the male bird on the trip and this one didn't disappoint.

Iberian Grey Shrike

I've all ways had mixed success shooting shrikes especially in the UK my hit rate is pretty much zero, in Spain on the other hand I can get quite close as long as I stay in the mobile hide (car) but on this trip I'm getting some of the closesd encounters to date, here's some images of the hundreds taken over a couple of hours.

Blue Rock Thrush

I'd seen Blue Rock Thrush several time in the week not really getting a decent image due to the harsh light or staying partly hidden but this bird gave some shots with a decent clean background, but I had to be quick as it only stayed maybe around five seconds on every visit.

Kestrel....male & female

Black Wheatear

White Wagtail

Serin

In Search of Bonelli's Eagle - Day 3

Day 3, Golden Eagle...or not - 29.1.20

Another day of photo opportunities of eagles, this time Golden Eagle. A new location for Turia Hides thats just starting to give good results for a late afternoon visit, I wouldn't say being new was work in progress but on this occasion it was a bit of a "dip" for me...thats the way it goes sometime.

That day starts in a local Passerine Hide with lots of the usual stuff including Rock Sparrow that I just couldn't get the camera on, but managing some nice images of Sardinia Warble, Coal Tit, White Wagtail, Black Redstart and disappointingly an out of focus displaying Siskin !!

Sardinian Warbler - female

Coal Tit

Black redstart - female 

Now 10.0am it's time to head up into the mountains on the edge of the Parc Natural de la Serra Colderona hopefully for views of Golden Eagle. It takes around 45 minuets to drive the twenty or so miles with the final few along dirt tracks. After unloading the gear its a short scramble up a small hill where the hide is located. Gear all set up and the bait rabbit in place it's now all about waiting.

As you can imagine it's quite up on the tops with the wind blowing and just the croak of the odd Raven in the distance, Yanni says the local area has resident Dartford Warbler population and as it's outside the breeding season she would play the call on the iPhone to try and entice a bird into the open, after a number of attempts a warbler pops out scuttling around deep in nearby bushes, then it fly's and perches on a twig of a small bush completely out in the open....boom the best views ever of a Dartford Warbler, the camera bursts into action but not that quick as its a 5D4.

After more waiting it's now well past 5.30pm, with the sun low in the sky and probably an hour to sunset we are advised to call it a day, a little disappointing but thats the way it goes sometimes but happy to get some cracking Dartford warbler Images. Maybe next time.

Dartford Warbler

Lo Romero Re-start

Lo Romer Golf - 8.11.19

It's been a trip up to El Hondo's Palm Farm Track, Vistabella Hides and San Philipe today mainly to try and get images of the reported Temminck's Stints in the flooded field off the Vistabella Road, although there appeared to be several present unfortunately they were way off in the distance so getting images was out of the question. So having trudged around all day for litlle reward other than distant views of Osprey, Marsh Harrier I returned back to home ground with batteries full and memory cards empty, so days are good some not so.

Now around 4.30pm there's a brief period when the light becomes ideal for photography so why not call in to Lo Romero to see if I can get more images of the Southern Grey Shrike in residence. Entering the Lo Romero I soon spot a male Black-redstart on a stoney area which are common in the area this time of year, I wait for maybe forty five minuets and only have one opportunity as the start hops between some low bushes...all is not lost, some images for the day efforts.

Black-redstart...male

Now the following day I've manage to catch up with a female on a different part of the golf course, initially quite skittish but as per usual waiting is the name of the game.

Just Time for a Last Hour !

Tuesday 24th January 2016

Scrub Land, La Romero

The forth day of my mini trip, now in a “T” shirt as it’s a nice 17 degrees. Due to a family event I’m only able to get out as of 3.0 pm to some local scrub land near the accommodation, with some patience its possible to photograph Stonechat, scrub Warblers, Larks and the odd Peregrine passing overhead..

Click the image to view !