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 4

Day 4, Goshawk - 30.1.20

Today it's a 5.30am start with just enough time for a couple of coffee's before we set off as we need to be in the Goshawk hide before it get's light. All geared up I head off down to the hotel's cafeteria and it's already busy with locals on route to their work place, the coffee's flowing and even the odd cognac...way too early for me !

Changing vehicles again to the four wheel drive we head up into the forest arriving at the hide it's still pitch black, a good idea I'd packed and brought along the head torch, Yani places the bait rabbit on the far post at a distance more suited to the 500mm and we wait. Usually the Goshawk arrives around sunrise which at this time of year is 8.30am staying to feed for around forty minuets by which time the light should be pretty good, not on this occasion, the bird turns up early at around 7.50am and its twilight...well as far as I'm concerned that's still called...dark !

We wait motionless for the hawk to settle before attempting any movement, happy the bird is feeding I check the camera settings....12,800 ISO, f4, 1/25 sec...wow crap, challenging to say the least. After about 10-15 minuets I mange to get shutter sped up to 1/100 sec on the camera and start to get some shots. See image below, I think it looks ok but it ain't going to win any prizes.

Over the next 45 minuets the hawk tears into the rabbit occasionally looking around checking it's surroundings, at one point it's looks at me but I suspect it can't see me through the one way glass probably just hearing the camera shutter. Minuets later the Goshawk looks skywards just as the male Goshawk flashes past and it takes off in pursuit not to return again.

Now around 9.0am and looks like the sessions over, we wait a further 30 minuets and with no sign of the bird returning we decide to call time. What a great experience, a little disappointed the bird turned when the light was not so good but there's always another time.

Right...what's next, well you'l have to read on.

Goshawk  -  female

Just look at the camera shooting settings for the above image to get an understanding of how low the light levels were ISO 12,800, f4, 1/100 sec, although light levels did improve later in the session.

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

In Search of Bonelli's Eagle - Day 2

Day 2, Bonelli's Eagle  - 28.1.20

I'm really looking forward to today as it's a double session with one of my target birds of the week, the Bonelli's Eagle. As we set off I'm told the Bonelli's Eagle usually visit twice during the day, late morning around 10.30am and a further visit around 3.0pm in the afternoon so it's a full day in the hide with quite a wait in between, photographing birds involves quite a lot of waiting around.

We're heading to the top of one the mountains in the area with panoramic views over the Valencian country side but first we have to change vehicles to a 4x4 vehicle as most later part of the drive is up and along mountain tracks.

As we arrive on the summit the sun makes an appearance the light looking pretty good hopefully for some decent images. Coming from an area of the UK not known for large eagles sightings I quite can't believe it....photographing Bonelli's Eagle !

Bonelli's Eagle

Morning Session.

We've been in the hide maybe for an hour or so and after a couple of flyby's the anticipation is building, then from the right the male Bonelli's Eagle lands on a rock partly hidden by some thorny bushes, I'm told the bird is quite tolerant so I grab some images but really waiting for the BOP to move into the open.

The eagle a little ungainly walks across the rocks the short distance to where the rabbit has been placed a few meters to the right and the main actions starts.

All to soon the eagle has had its fill and departs...wow, but it's not over yet

Bonelli's Eagle

Afternoon Session

Now well past the time the Bonelli's usually appear in the afternoon we are beginning to wonder if a second appearance will ever happen, then in the distance coming down the valley two "pecks" can just be picked out in the distance, as they come closer the male and female can be clearly seen so fingers crossed a visit to the last of the rabbit spread out on the rocks looks likely.

Again from the right floating on the wind the eagle drops in like being dangled on a bungee, it's the male eagle with no sign of the female bird, unfortunately this visit doesn't have the nice the sun light of the previous visit never the less I'm happy to get another view of this now more scares Spanish raptor.