In May last year I had a great week at Hides Calera in central Spain, which is a drive of about one and a half hours from Madrid airport. This whet my appetite for more and so I returned in February this year. For this visit, my top priorities comprised adult Goshawk at Hides Calera and Golden Eagle, at a new place - Hides Villuercas which is based at Canamero, a small town a further two hours drive away from Madrid.
In addition, many of the other raptors (Spanish Imperial Eagle, Griffon Vulture and Marsh Harrier) from last year were around, although in winter numerous Red Kites replace the Black Kites that migrate to Africa out of the breeding season.
My first couple of days were disrupted by bad weather but I did have two excellent Goshawk sessions and a bonus in the form of a hide that had up to 7 Hawfinches coming in at close range, in addition to plentiful Azure-winged Magpies. At Hides Villuercas I did less well as the Golden Eagle had stopped coming in and I also had a blank session at a Vulture Hide. However I did have great views of a Bonelli's Eagle together with smaller birds including Blue Rock Thrush and Black Redstart.
Here is a small selection of the almost 40,000 images I took. For more photos and details of the trip, go to this page on my website. For my gallery of all processed photos to date, go to this page.
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| Adult Goshawk incoming in heavy rain! © Stephen Burch |
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| Goshawk in heavy rain © Stephen Burch |
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| Red Kite in steep dive © Stephen Burch |
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| Hawfinch in flight © Stephen Burch |
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| Bonelli's Eagle in flight © Stephen Burch |
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