LAMMERGEIER IMAGES CAN BE STRIKING AS TINY SUBJECTS AGAINST A VAST LANDSCAPE. I was hide testing for our partners in Catalonia, La Sabina, and even though I was not lucky to have a bird land at their new feeding station (as they had been doing regularly the previous week) I still managed a nice composition. A wonderful partly snowy Pyrennean background dominates the scene in front of their hide but the only Lammergeier(s) I saw were in the valley below and bored with no sign of any other worthwhile opportunities I tracked a distant bird as it passed across the mountainside, firing when it crossed a dark pine forest. I always shoot fully manual and was happily correctly exposed for the bird, therefore darkening the forest below it and giving an almost night-time effect. Just a lucky outcome but now one of my favourite Lammer images and another lesson that birds do not need to be big in the frame and tightly-cropped like a postage stamp. See how the Lammergeier's massive tail make it look like it has a third wing!
Viewing entries in
Birding
EGYPTIAN VULTURES ARE SADLY ON THE WAY OUT. Currently listed as 'endangered' by BirdLife International owing to a rapidly declining population they are definitely birds to watch while we still can. We were lucky to be able to visit the state-of-the-art raptor flight photo hide at Lleras near Tremp again this year and as well as some very close birds there were lots of opportunities to shoot these attractive little vultures in the air as well as on the ground. I remember the skies around the Taj Mahal being filled by them 20 years ago and now you are lucky to see one or two there. The decline has also been seen across Africa and although there are some pockets where their numbers are stable (presumably where they are not blighted by the veterinary drug diclofenac), like Oman and Socotra, the prospects for their long term survival look very bleak. Unbelievably the same horrible drug has recently been authorised for use in Spain, which will probably mean the end for this and most other vultures there. Judging from their actions most present governments absolutely do not care about wildlife. I wonder when the backlash from those that do will come?
Egyptian Vulture, adult
Egyptian Vulture, immature
HIGH IN CATALONIA'S SERRA DE BOUMORT (= 'mountain of the dead cow' on account of the cows that got their legs stuck in or were fatally injured in the rocky landscape) we enjoyed probably our best photo session so far for Lammergeiers. They are notoriously shy creatures and take some time to come down for a free meal, circling for ages and thoroughly checking the surrounding area for danger before risking a landing. The local population of these truly amazing birds continues to flourish, thanks to the regular supply of carrion put out for the last 30 years at several feeding stations in this part of the Pre-Pyrenees range. Here they are 'bone-swallowers' rather than 'bone-breakers', thanks to the ideally-sized sheep's limbs provided for them. As usual we saw all four regular Spanish vultures from the hide including an insane frenzy of griffons but the Lammers stole the show, also as usual. They have the look of a missing link about them and would not be out of place in such as Avatar with their striking plumage, beard (or rather moustache) and just under three meters wingspan! PH1 stomach acid allows the vultures to digest bone inside 24 hours - I have seen them swallow two sheep legs at one sitting previously.
PENDLE HILL WAS EVIL TODAY in a blasting, cold easterly wind that was so strong at times I could hardly stand up at the summit. Consequently there were few birds, just a couple of local breeding wheatears and a flock of 15 golden plovers. I recorded the distant songflight of one yesterday as it struggled into a strong head-wind. Their mournful call is one of the sounds of my childhood birding walks on the moors near my grandparents' home in Weardale. There have not been any more dotterels yet but it is surely only a matter of time and it is weather like today's that produced a ringed plover on the summit a few years ago. It was interesting to note that the Christian fundamentalists who attached a wooden cross to the trig point took it down today, Easter Sunday. It wasn't a very impressive feat to carry such a small cross up the hill either, so small it was suitable only for crucifying a small child or a squirrel but I suppose it is the thought that counts.