Eagle - Poland (1 Viewer)

Hi all.
These are two poor photos from a very special encounter with a fantastic bird, not only for me but especially for my 2,5 and 4 year old sons, who are huge fans of raptors

It was the first time I've ever seen an eagle that close in the wild, not soaring high above, but standing on the meadow some 50 meters from us and then taking off right above our heads! And then we met him again some two or three hours later in almost the same place Unfortunately I didn't have my tele lens with me, so I could only use a kit lens...

Location: southeastern Poland, San river valley in a hilly area called Pogórze Przemyskie (Przemysl Highlands), which by the way is an amazing yet rarely visited region, very wild and unspoilt, with vast forests, great landscapes, abandoned villages (really troubled history here...) and rare fauna including wolves, lynx and even bears, and of course lots of birds, especially raptors.

Date: 17.09.2014

So, the question is which eagle is this? Aquila chrysaetos, A. pomarina or A. clanga? All occur in the area. I think it is pomarina, but will be more than happy to hear any other opinions. Unfortunately I don't have any photo of its upper side, but it had large bright areas on the upper side of wings and while the bird was standing on the ground its the head was visibly brighter than the rest.

Hi Michael,

You are correct with A. pomarina. Lesser Spotted Eagle usually shows much paler underwing coverts than flight feathers but also shows the very short 7th primary feather, an important feature in helping to separate from A.clanga when used in combination with other features such as longer tail, slightly narrower wings, smaller size and of course the two light comma shaped marks at the base of the outer primaries - here, A. clanga has a single, poorly defined comma.

I know the San River area just outside Przemysl very well, having visited the area annually from 1996 to 2010, leading the Sunbird spring birding tour which started in Przemysl, moving down to Muczne and Uzstryki, then up to Sienawa, Chelm, and eventually to Bialowieza, Narewka and Goniadz. Great birding and many fond memories of Ural Owls there!

I've attached a pic of what the river looked like on our winter tour in 2004 - quite spectacular!

Stu

Thanks for the confirmation Stuart! Nice to read that you know and like eastern Poland And here's a photo of San on the day we saw this eagle - and the boat in which we crossed the river - no bridges within some 50 km, a nice adventure for the kids

Agree with LSE.