Ospreys from Mallorca

On my trips to Mallorca I usually see migrating Ospreys and I get a few shots of them perched up or a distant flight shot. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to have one circle around right in front of me, it then landed in the water...again right in front of me. The lake is very shallow and the Osprey took the unusual fishing method of running around after the Grass Carp. It never actually caught one but it did give me some great photo opportunities.

More images on my new website: Steven Round Bird Photography

 

Photo of the Day - Osprey

Digging through my archives, here's an Osprey from 2007. Nice because it has no id tags and the fish is a brown Trout, rather than a rainbow, which they are usually seen with in photographs.

Extremadura, Spain. Trip Report. Day 2

Day 2. February 21^st
Weather: Sunny.

From the hotel in Olivenza, Lesser Kestrel had been seen and Spotless Starlings were perching on the roof.  The morning would be a trip to the Alqueva reservoir. On the way we would stop off at some cork woods which were very productive for passerines. A good list of birds were seen including: Short-toed Treecreeper, Thekla and Crested Lark, Hoopoe, Cirl Bunting, Hawfinch, Woodlark and Serin.

Cirl Bunting

Short-toed Treecreeper

Short-toed Treecreeper

Hoopoe

Thekla Lark

Thekla Lark

 At the reservoir we saw Cattle Egret, Golden Plover, Osprey, Stonechat, Zitting Cisticola and Hoopoe. A gathering group of Griffon and Black Vultures were high overhead.

Osprey

Black Vulture

After a picnic lunch we headed to Badajoz town which is situated on the Guadiana river, this is the border between Spain and Portugal. Here we would do some “Urban birding”.  Along the edge of the river are a series of long thin islands, these have small trees, scrub and reeds and are home to a great variety of birds. We also saw Otters here. The birds seen here were: Common Kingfisher,  Little Egret, Great Egret, Purple Swamphen, Little Bittern, Penduline Tit, Cetti’s Warbler, Grey Wagtail, Chiffchaff and Common Waxbill.

Chiffchaff

We then headed to the town of Alberquerque. As the sun was setting we would wait for an Eagle Owl, which returns each evening to announce it’s territory on a rocky outcrop near the town. A little dark for photography, but great to see such a bird fly in and sit on the rocks.

My Favourite Images (5)

Part 5 in the series of some of my favourites.

Leach's Storm Petrel.
I have many shots of these birds but I particularly like this one with the low sunlight illuminating the underparts.

Little Egrets.
Flocks of these Egrets come in over the estuary to roost each evening. This was a lucky shot with a whole line of over 20 which took the perfect route between the dark clouds with the setting sun behind them.

Little Egret.
This is another shot that benefits from the low angle of the sunlight.

Mistle Thrush.
This bird was guarding the berries of a Mountain Ash tree. I was photographing it from the car and it would occasionally drop to the ground to pick up the fallen berries.

Nuthatch.
A simple shot but I like the gnarled wood on this one.

Osprey.
I have spent quite a lot of time in Scotland photographing Ospreys. The next two shots are a couple that I particularly like.

Osprey