A Her-man BY with Kit 2021

[Kitsafari]

381/SG274 Long-toed Stint, Neo Tiew 

 

Horrible light on a very skulky bird. 

 

 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

We were also very fortunate to catch at least three mammals in Spain! all firsts for us. 

 

European wildcat , a silhouette when it was really getting dark in Gallocanta Lagoon. it vanished behind the rocks when we tried to drive closer. 

 

 

Iberian Ibex, zaragoza

 

 

a pair of roe deer

 

[Kitsafari]

Last Stretch!!

 

382/SP120 Merlin, Zaragoza

 

Unapologetically, some EBCs - one shot facing right and the other facing left . Only one was seen very far away and flew off as we got closer.  and I nearly lost my glasses on the road too.

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

383/SP121 Western Marsh Harrier, Catalonia/Aragon

 

we saw this species every day, some views of which were better. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

259/SP122 Common Buzzard, Barcelona outskirts

 

already in the SG count but this shot was priceless for us. 

 

 

and against that scenery...

 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

384/SP123 Long-legged Buzzard, Lleida Steppes

 

Tough to catch a good shot despite a long car chase on the steppes

 

 

[Kitsafari]

385/SP124 Hen Harrier, Lleida Steppes 

 

we were so far, but this male harrier afforded us a great opportunity to watch it hunt as it flew up and down a long row of bushes to check for prey, but unfortunately, it didn't get any. 

 

male: 

 

 

female

 

[Kitsafari]

386/SP125 Bonelli's Eagle, Lleida steppes

 

thermalling with the griffon vultures

 

 

[Kitsafari]

386/SP126 Red Kite, Pyrenees

 

such handsome raptors!

 

 

 

\

Edited January 18, 2022 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

387/SP127 Griffon Vulture, Gramuntil, Pyrenees

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

388/SP128 Cinerous Vulture, Gramuntil, Pyrenees

 

sorry to overload you but we were buzzing with this species as well. I counted about 15 of these black vultures at the hide.

 

 

 

 

quite a bit of interaction between the cinerous and the griffons

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

And right at my top target list was the 

 

389/SP129 Lammergeier aka Bearded Vulture aka Bone Crusher, Gramuntil, Pyrenees

 

Four individuals were at the hide, keeping us there for 3-4 hours as they kept flying back in. it was fascinating to see the pecking order - griffons take all meat, cinerous take the leftover, and lammergeiers take the bones. And so awesome to watch them swallow the bones. it was a tremendous, magical time for us. 

 

apologies for the overload. we took thousands of photos, of course 95% went into the bins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

That's it for 2021.

 

SG count was 274 and spain was 129. not bad for a covid lockdown year. 

thanks everyone for following along!

 

[Soukous]

13 minutes ago, Kitsafari said:

That's it for 2021.

 

SG count was 274 and spain was 129. not bad for a covid lockdown year. 

thanks everyone for following along!

 

 

A fantastic effort - now for 2022

[Zim Girl]

Love the pictures of all the vultures.

Great score for 2021!

[Kitsafari]

Thanks @Soukous and @Zim Girl

[pedro maia]

Great additions from Spain with a good collection of raptors, I would love to see the bearded vultures but we don’t have them here.

[Kitsafari]

@pedro maia thank you. you can just cross over to Spain anytime to see the bearded vultures!

[xelas]

An excellent BY for only 2 countries!

[Kitsafari]

Thanks much @xelas hopefully this year will be more than 2 countries.....

[michael-ibk]

An awesome finish with all the raptors - the Vulture photos are all gorgeous. 129 photos in Spain in just six days or so (?) is very impressive. A great effort Kit and Herman!

[Peter Connan]

Wow! Fantastic!

[Kitsafari]

thank you @michael-ibk and @Peter Connan

 

we really loved the raptors and vultures!!

[PeterHG]

What a finish! Incredible photos of all the vultures and especially the Lammergeyer. You must have had a great time at the hide! Thank you both for sharing these with us.

[TonyQ]

A wonderful collection of raptors to finish an excellent Big Year.

Thanks to you and Herman