AN EAGLE OWL EVENING

A quest to see to see an Eagle Owl for the first time saw myself, Nick and Steve go in the direction of Torremendo for the sole purpose of allowing Steve to have the first sighting of Spain's largest owl.
We took the canal road out of San Miguel de Salinas to check on the reservoirs. These, and the surrounding areas, provided us with sightings of:
Collared Dove
Common Sandpipers
Coot
Cormorant
Eurasian Starlings
Goldfinch
Greenshank
Grey Wagtail
Linnet
Moorhen
Serin
Shelduck
Southern Grey Shrike
Spotless Starlings
Teal - male and alone except for the Moorhens.
White Wagtail.

We arrived at the owl site about an hour before sunset. There was very little breeze and it was strangely quiet except for the sound of construction work being carried on about a mile away.
Soon we heard the distinctive call, but we had to wait sometime before we saw any sign of it. Up on the ridge we identified one Buzzard and possibly another one perched in a tree. This highlighted the major difficulty of this site - distance from where we could see and where the birds can be seen. Then there was movement amongst the trees. Steve got his first glimpse and then Nick again saw some flight with enough of the bird to be seen to know that he had seen an Eagle Owl. We knew where it had flown to and there it was perched on a branch, with a fairly light background and in clear view. It was Steve's first sighting of this fantastic bird. Nick and I were both delighted for him and for Nick it was his best sighting. Then this bird flew and reappeared further along the ridge. We worked hard for over an hour with scopes and binoculars and then we had success. Patience generally is rewarded.

The previous morning at La Zenia I saw a bird flying low over the water. When it landed I could see the long legs and curved bill. I had to work hard at getting a good view as the sun was very low but through the binoculars I could see the distinctive white of the supercilium. Whimbrel for me and now Estepes de Yecla on Friday.