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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Another Great Day in the Pyrenees - 2020 (1 Viewer)

Ok, so here goes.

I need to set the scene. Wallcreeper hunting. scoping up a mountain in near 30 degrees centigrade with some birders. Searching every nook and cranny. At the max range of optical equipment and at the same time trying not to raise expectations. I spend most of the lunch stop scoping, scoping, scoping, searching into the caves, the higher cliffs, following the willowing mountain stream as it cascades through the mountain (too much?). It's a daunting task.

And there is a movement, hang on. Hidden in a cave the smallest movement. A shape, a grey looking the outline of a bird? The line of the wing. Convinced, 'Wallcreeper'! A couple of others check it out. Will it come out of the small cave?

After 5-10 mins it does but drop a rock on my head, dig a hole the size of, well, me and swallow me up whole, its a bloody Griffon Vulture. I had turned a Griffon bill into a Wallcreeper - sounds incredibill but true. My excuses have already been given.

Looking for a place to hide - lets be honest nothing can bring you back from that - when the funniest comment I have ever heard whilst birdwatching given the enormity of what had just happened - 'maybe the Vulture ate the Wallcreeper'... I was saved, partially.
 
Ok, so here goes.

I need to set the scene. Wallcreeper hunting. scoping up a mountain in near 30 degrees centigrade with some birders. Searching every nook and cranny. At the max range of optical equipment and at the same time trying not to raise expectations. I spend most of the lunch stop scoping, scoping, scoping, searching into the caves, the higher cliffs, following the willowing mountain stream as it cascades through the mountain (too much?). It's a daunting task.

And there is a movement, hang on. Hidden in a cave the smallest movement. A shape, a grey looking the outline of a bird? The line of the wing. Convinced, 'Wallcreeper'! A couple of others check it out. Will it come out of the small cave?

After 5-10 mins it does but drop a rock on my head, dig a hole the size of, well, me and swallow me up whole, its a bloody Griffon Vulture. I had turned a Griffon bill into a Wallcreeper - sounds incredibill but true. My excuses have already been given.

Looking for a place to hide - lets be honest nothing can bring you back from that - when the funniest comment I have ever heard whilst birdwatching given the enormity of what had just happened - 'maybe the Vulture ate the Wallcreeper'... I was saved, partially.

We have all been there! And put it this way: it's a nice tale to tell! ;)
 
Don't know who is Mr Derek, but I agree. :king:

"Mr Derek" refers to the late Derek Fowlds, a fine actor but one who long ago when the world was young and so was I, had a job as the human sidekick to a BBC children's TV glove puppet character, a fox named Basil Brush. At the end of the half hour programme "Mr Derek" would read to Basil from a book that was invariably an adventure story of one of Basil's ancestors - and end on a cliffhanger with Basil exclaiming "But you can't leave him like that, Mr Derek!"

I suspect many BFers of a certain age would also have been watching.

John
 
Great story Rosbifs. :t:

I had a similar experience of aircrafts Forestwitcher, but it was a jumbojet. :king:

And thanks John to explain me that Mr D.
 
46

House Martin last week and Peregrine today

That take the garden raptor list to 13

Have just spent the last couple of hours trying to narrow down dates of a satellite tagged Greater/Lesser Spotted Eagle hybrid. It has passed this area 5 times since 2015 to and from Lithuania.

14.10.2107 Lau Balagnas
27.04.2018 LUZ ST SAUVEUR
29.10.2019 Pau
03.04.2020 St Jean Pied de Port

I have been looking but not seeing.....

Still happy with 13 lockdown Raptors so far. Still waiting for Hobby, Honeys etc to come and maybe something extra special - the camera is poised and when its sunny the scope is permanently erected in the garden.
 
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Some very quick analysis of the Eagle

On the 3/04 he travelled from Logorno in Spain to Agen c.340km from 6am until 6pm
4/04 c.310km
5/04 c.440km

The morning wake up seems to be between 6 and 6.45 and seems to roost between 18h and 18h40.

It's actually a bit of a faff calculating but if I find a quicker way, or some spare time, I might try and find some of the 'bigger' days, then try and analyse against weather etc...
 
Hey, it could have been one of these (/from Wikipedia ): Saab JAS 39 Gripen (IPA: [ˈɡrǐːpɛn]; English: griffin) is a light single-engines multirole fighter aircraft”

In other words a Gripen Vulture;)

Saab also produced a Griffin car range starting in 90's, I think, based on the 9-5 with a 3lt turbo petrol engine...
 
Whitethroat in the garden last night

shopping today

Swift
Whinchat pair

Fifty, Eagle Owl - decided to run the gauntlet and head out the 2km for this one

51 Sand martin
 

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I was hoping that you could add some eagle pictures to the 15 year post.

I lost a bit of impetus...

That said had a Common Redstart yesterday 50 yards from the front door. Shopping day today which brought me 3 Yellow Legged Gulls (52). First during lockdown and not usually seen this side of Pau.

At the same time can you find dates of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker you had on the campsite?
 
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shopping today

Swift
Whinchat pair

Fifty, Eagle Owl - decided to run the gauntlet and head out the 2km for this one

I'd be quite chuffed if I could swing an Eagle Owl on route to the shops ...good one! Nice read this thread, especially the Wallcreeper story :-O
 
Sorry, I've lost the 15 year post - I can see the white one though.
Lesser pecker on 26 Aug 2000 and 27 May 18.
Has the Tour been cancelled?
Fingers crossed for August-Spetember.
 
Sorry, I've lost the 15 year post - I can see the white one though.
Lesser pecker on 26 Aug 2000 and 27 May 18.
Has the Tour been cancelled?
Fingers crossed for August-Spetember.

The tour de France has been moved to the end of august through to the 22 September ish... It finishes the day the cycling world championships start. the tour is not in our area this year.

The May Woody was on your campsite. That was the year I had one above the site, I think.

53 - Dipper - today. The nest is less than 200 yards from the front door. Chicks shouldn't be that far off now...

Also the Eagle Owl shouldn't be far off from having walkabout chicks. They should soon be spending some time out in the open. If only we weren't in lockdown. Same goes for the Tengmalms owl.

A farmer lost some sheep to a bear not far from the tengmalms nest - maybe less than 1km from the site. Wildcamping anyone?

I've been trying to sort my camera lens out. The parcs lady, who lives across the road, has the same lens as me but a better camera. Her shots are way way better than mine. It has given me a bit of impetus to get it right. I reset everything and am starting from scratch again. There is also a lot of technique that I'm probably lacking because I tend to fire two or three shots off then move on.

Still waiting for some Honeys and Hobbys (maybe something rarer!!!)
 
So today was a mad day - well a mad half hour.

I cycled up for some bread and on the way back a Booted Eagle dived into the mayors garden next to the road. He failed to catch anything but wow! I got home and had a sniff outside - I had noticed some Griffons.

So in 15 minutes I had
2 Booted Eagles
2 Kestrel
At least 32 Griffon Vultures
2 Egyptian Vultures
A Golden Eagle
A Black Kite
and a Buzzard...

Then two Hobby - first of the year moving north. By there time I got the camera out they were gone!

I hetched around for a bit and grabbed some shots of the Booted and Egyptian. All afternoon there seemed be something going on culminating with 4 Short Toed Eagles in close proximity - I grabbed a shot of 2 early evening.

Wow - not much effort required. There seemed to be some higher migration but in and out of the clouds...

Lots of hirundelles as well.

Great stuff
 

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