EAGLES !!

A very distant pair of Golden Eagles being mobbed by buzzards. Just look at the size difference! 

We had one bitterly cold day with torrential rain so decided to head for the Garbh Eilean bird hide at Ardery. We called here on our way and thought it held promise of an otter so was a good choice for a wet day. We watched the tide in and out but afraid otter eluded us yet again. Lots of seals on the opposite spit and passing birds kept us happy for the day. There was an almighty noise and birds all flew up from the nearby pine trees and Simon shouted 'sea eagle'. The bird was hardly visible in the low cloud and heavy rain but we did our best and everyone in the hide had views through our scope, so a happy bunch. Totally unexpected and a massive bonus for the day which brought Karen to near hypothermia !

There was just us on our first visit, perfect. Whoever designed the height of the viewing windows in the hide did it with hobbits and giants in mind as I couldn't see through any ! 

Lots of Red-breasted Mergansers around 

On our second visit, the hide was very busy as it was raining and obviously everyone had the same idea. There were a couple of elderly American ladies in the hide that made us smile and we all chatted for ages after we had stopped laughing. One said to the other...."See those birds over there next to the seals, they are red-headed penguins" !!  Now, she was going to go home with a cracking bird list !  We did laugh as they were mergansers xx  Lovely ladies totally enjoying their holiday in Scotland. 

The Russian Border from Georgia

The Russian Border !! 

Lots of border guards and men in huts watching everything - including us !

A brand new monastery was under construction near to the border. From their grounds we could see the pair of golden eagles in the distance.  The priests came out to look through our telescopes at the birds, they were ecstatic to be able to see the eagles and were well impressed with the telescopes although we did keep them on the birds and not the border!

A pair of golden eagles on the border between Georgia and Russia. 

The security police told us we couldn't go any further up the hills even though we were still in Georgia so we decided to beat a retreat, all quite happy with our morning.......the Russian border, a pair of golden eagles and a monastery to look round. Not bad for a mornings work !

Golden Eagles on Mull

The chick could occasionally be seen moving around the nest, but it didn't venture out. It became very vocal when a parent bird was approaching, even though it didn't get any food just a sod of grass!

The nest was in this crevice in the rock face which could be seen from the road.

Time for an afternoon snooze !

It was fabulous to see a pair of golden eagles with a chick during our recent stay on Mull. We stood for roughly 4 hours one day, occasionally seeing the chick moving around the nest which was well up on a distant rock face that could be seen from the road, before a parent bird flew in. But those few minutes view of such a cracking bird were well worth the wait. Without decent optics you didn't stand an earthly of any good views. We visited this site a few times and each time we were really lost for words. It was a well known eagle nest so word had soon spread among the 'big camera men' and they outnumbered the birdwatchers. Karen was stunned at the latest gadget that they all had, and that was a remote control for their camera shutters. So, after setting their big lenses on the nest site, they just sat in their cars and then simply pressed the remote controls, they didn't even look at the birds.....what is that all about? It's not birdwatching that's for sure and it's not photography if you ask me as they don't even look at the subject they are photographing. Infact none of the big camera people even had binoculars ! We would sooner admire that majestic, iconic bird than get a photo anyday. These pics were taken over 3 days when we had one adult fly in and one snoozing on a nearby ledge. The rest of the time we just watched in awe at the flight and beauty of these birds.  

Spanish Birds

 Azure Winged Magpie in the rain. These were plentiful but were so flighty that it was impossible to get close.

 These were very common and seen everywhere. The colours were stunning.

 Cattle Egret. We drove past a recently ploughed field one evening, it was covered in cattle egrets and white wagtails. Obviously the plough had turned up some easy pickings.

 Corn Buntings. Seen daily around the bull fields.

 Great Grey Shrike. This sat on the same post all week.

 Golden Eagle. The raptors only flew on one day while we were there so we were very lucky to have this Golden Eagle souring above us.

 Griffon Vultures were very common.

 Plenty of Hoopoes but always very flighty.

 Iberian Chiffchaff - a cracker of a bird !

 Rock Thrush, just one seen all week.

 Sardinian Warbler (rung). This was very tame, and not bothered by us at all.

 Spanish Imperial Eagle - definately the bird of the trip. Very high so dificult to photograph but still a quality bird. Was well impressed with this sighting. It flew over about 10 minutes before the golden eagle.

 Stonechat. These were again quite numerous around the bull fields before we started on the high mountain climb.

Griffon Vultures.

A few bird shots from our recent Lynx trip to the Sierra Morena area of southern Spain. We had a total of 65 species in 4 days with the Imperial Eagle being the best bird. The weather was against us most days, infact we had one full day of sun and 3 of fog, rain and extremely low cloud!