To count or not to count...

[pedro maia]

We saw a few Dippers, I saw it once in Italy (we have them here) but is really a cool bird and it deserves a couple oof pictures.

 

 

[Kitsafari]

I love dippers so two or more of the bird are more than welcomed!

[Peter Connan]

Some really nice species here.

But I'm afraid you are going to have to keep looking for an African Harrier-hawk, because that isn't one.

[pedro maia]

3 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

Some really nice species here.

But I'm afraid you are going to have to keep looking for an African Harrier-hawk, because that isn't one.

 

what is it Peter?

[Peter Connan]

30 minutes ago, pedro maia said:

 

what is it Peter?

I would go for Wahlberg's  considering the size of what you thought it was and the crest.

[Galana]

15 hours ago, pedro maia said:

but is really a cool bird

That is because it keeps taking a dip to cool down.

 

I agree with @Peter Connanon the Wahlberg's.

[PeterHG]

5 hours ago, Peter Connan said:

But I'm afraid you are going to have to keep looking for an African Harrier-hawk, because that isn't one.

Are you sure, Peter? Couldn't it be a juvenile Harrier-Hawk?

This an Ebird photo of a juvenile

Edited May 6 by PeterHG

[PeterHG]

Great additions and photos, @pedro maia! I have not seen a Wood Warbler in quite few years. Their numbers have gone down considerably over here. That Citril Finch would have been a lifer for me.

[pedro maia]

Thanks for the help but now I don´t know what species I should count.

 

The ID wasn´t mine, it was in birdforum and it was juvenile african harrier hawk like @PeterHGsuggests.

 

 

[michael-ibk]

FWIW, I'm not sure but would also agree with Harrier-Hawk. The general appearance just does not say Eagle to me. And I've seen young Harrier-Hawks without the classic skin around the eye look, very confusing birds.

[TonyQ]

Lovely Dippers, and your numbers appear to work well.

So now you are going for the 1000!

[Peter Connan]

It's hard to be 100% sure with that photo, but the tail also looks wrong for Harrier hawk to me.

 

Pedro, I think there's enough uncertainty here that you can leave the count unchanged.

Edited May 7 by Peter Connan

[pedro maia]

Thank you all but now I have a problem.

 

I can use Harrier hawk and I can use Wahlber eagle, but it seems that I can´t use any of them.

[pedro maia]

15 hours ago, TonyQ said:

Lovely Dippers, and your numbers appear to work well.

So now you are going for the 1000!

 

I´m going to 1000 but it will take me a few years to get there...

[Peter Connan]

23 minutes ago, pedro maia said:

Thank you all but now I have a problem.

 

I can use Harrier hawk and I can use Wahlber eagle, but it seems that I can´t use any of them.

 

This only becomes a problem when you see the other one of the two, and by then we will all have forgotten...

[pedro maia]

3 minutes ago, Peter Connan said:

 

This only becomes a problem when you see the other one of the two, and by then we will all have forgotten...

 

That would be a good way to solve this , but for the moment I´m not going to count any of them.

 

You owe me one species Peter .

[pedro maia]

Corrections made.

 

Now back to the Pyrenees, we hade two main targets but missed one of them, the Wallcreeper, we tried it close to the town of Sort, in a place where it occurs, but we didn´t have much time and also we diddn´t have a guide and couldn´t find the bird.

 

We also missed another target species, the Black woodpecker.

[pedro maia]

For our other main target we booked a hide session in Buseu, also close to the town of Sort, Buseu is a small abandoned village 1.350m high in the catalan Pyrenees, owned by the Canut family, where they have a house to rent (we didn´t stay there but visited and looks like a great place to stay for a couple of days).

 

https://buseuproject.com/en/home/

 

They have a few hides, mostly for vultures but also one for Golden eagle and one for passerines.

 

We booked a session for the vultures hide, it´s above the house, maybe at 1500-1600m.

 

We could choose between these two hides, we went for the one above, very confortable, for 3 people, we were only 2 so we had plenty of space:

 

 

Spectacular views

 

 

Views with the house:

 

[pedro maia]

First to arrive, the Griffons (they were already waiting when we arrived as they knew food was comming)

 

 

 

 

 

[pedro maia]

I´m a big fan of vultures and the Cynerous is one of my favourites:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Connan]

26 minutes ago, pedro maia said:

 

That would be a good way to solve this , but for the moment I´m not going to count any of them.

 

You owe me one species Peter .

 

African Harrier Hawks sometimes fly over my house.

Next time I see one, I will try to catch it and post it to you?

 

You got some great vulture photos there!

Edited May 7 by Peter Connan

[pedro maia]

The other hide would could choose had a better perspective for the take off of the vultures but we had many birds really close to our hide´s window, it was a good choice.

 

We had the visit of only one Egyptian vulture but it got really close:

 

 

 

 

What a beauty 

 

[pedro maia]

Our target species was of course the

 

W747 Bearded vulture, aka Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus)

 

Be prepared for a lammergeier overload, what an amazing bird:

 

 

 

 

 

[pedro maia]

We had a maximum number of 17 lammergeier at the same time, on the ground and flying, some of them dropping bones to break them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 7 by pedro maia

[pedro maia]

A few more pictures with some interaction between species: