Birds of Prey in the east

The general advice for raptors is to head west in the Algarve. However they are also around in the east, just not in as large numbers. We have seen them on and off but they are not the easiest birds to photograph –  either soaring far above you, or when you spot one on a post he/she spots you too and disappears. Such as the owl last week, who we are still not sure what it was. So I haven’t really mentioned them before. A few days ago however we were taking advantage of the afternoon sun sitting on rocks sheltered from the wind. It really was gorgeous doing very little apart from watching the tide come in. It was then in the distance we noticed a large dot in the sky which seemed to be hovering.

We initially assumed it must be a harrier as the gulls seemed unsettled but as it came closer we realised it was definitely hovering, something harriers don’t tend to do.

As you do when you are near large lakes or coastal waters you think ‘could it be’, and then immediately decide it cannot. However it definitely was. We were lucky enough to be in the sun and watching an Osprey right above us.

They are wonderful to watch, and although this one didn’t dive it was closer enough to watch easily with the naked eye. Simply marvellous and made our Saturday.  Eventually he/she left us and a few minutes later we noticed the gulls to the right of us were very unsettled.

Couldn’t understand why as Osprey are fish hunters. diving feet first into the water and so other birds should not be bothered by them. We then realised we were being treated to another Bird of Prey. Unfortunately the view finder on my camera is misbehaving and so I couldn’t get a better photograph then this. At the time we thought Marsh Harrier but now are thinking Black Kite.

By the way do you recall  I mentioned the tide was coming in, well we were so distracted by the birds of prey we took our eye off the tide. Fortunately whilst the path we have strolled along to our sitting rocks had disappeared, there was another path for us to walk out!