While I love this blog, I now pretty much only write on my other two blogs: BirdingBlogs.com and 10,000 Birds - I would love to see you there!

Saturday 30 October 2010

Stone Chats galore

I have just gotten back from an awesome 6 days in Extremadura (western Spain), a bird-lovers paradise. It was wonderful to be in the sun again (it was snowing at home and in Extremadura we were sitting in shorts, baking in the sun).


One of the things we did a few times while we were in Extremadura is to drive out on the road through the steppes from Belen (near Trujillo). In the afternoon, the sun is directly behind you and the light on two of the afternoons was absolutely spectacular. Jörg and I had a lot of fun digiscoping all the little passerines that lines the road and buzzed around in the steppes.

Here are some of the stonchats I digiscoped there:


playing with the blue sky as a background

the wonderfully golden browns of the steppes also made for some interesting, rich backgrounds



Besides the stonechats, we also saw tons of larks: Thekla Lark, Crested Lark, Skylark, Short-toed Lark, Calandra Lark and a few Wood Larks (I'll post some pics when I have time).

Oh, and how could one forget the Great Bustards and Little Bustards.

Ghastly photos (huge distances), but if you use your imagination, you can figure it out ;-)

All photos digiscoped with a Swarovski STM80HD scope, TLS800 adapter and Canon 7D


Happy digiscoping,
Dale Forbes

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Extremadura looks great. I'm going there & Donana in April next with my club, Northern Ireland Ornithologists Club. Photographers heaven hopefully.

Dale Forbes said...

Hi Richard, ya Extremadura was great. Who will be your guide? I think a good guide makes all the difference in finding the really cool birds...
have you seen my other post on Extremadura?
http://birdingblogs.com/2010/daleforbes/a-bit-of-extremadura-birding

Chris said...

Wow fantastic shots of the stonechat Dale! These are all wonderful pictures... And the bustard, splendid. I guess you enjoyed these moments!

Raghavendra said...

very nice.
you're a good traveller.
cute birds with excellent background!

Matheus... said...

Very good.I want to be a biologist, so it's good to know. Look at my blog, and if you like, leave a comment. thanks

Heaven Kim said...

I like your some photos at here.
I wanna draw that sooooon!!!!!!!!
HAVE A NICE DAY!

Unknown said...

Those were awesome pictures!