Circaetus gallicus

No: Slangeørn, Eng: Short-toed eagle, It: Biancone

Dear All, 

The August picture is from the highlands of inner Puglia, Italy, the Murge,

a beautiful natural park with a large variety of (to me) exotic birds.

A special thanks to Peppino Carlucci who showed me around!

Next month a bird from Brazil!

-Hans

Murge, Puglia, August 2015

Merops apiaster

No: Bieter, Eng: Bee-eater, It: Gruccione

Dear All,

For July, I have selected this very colourful bird. It is occasionally seen in Norway, e.g. in June a group of 10 visited Hordaland. But these photos are from Extremadura, Spain,

where Harald T. and myself saw them on May 31. They do also eat flies (last photo).

I wish you all a nice summer.

-Hans

Extremadura, June 2015

Falco naumanni

No: Rødfalk, Eng: Lesser kestrel, It: Grillaio

Dear All,
This is from Harald and my trip to Extremadura, three days in May/June.
Altogether we saw about 85 different species, many of them new to me.

The Lesser Kestrel lives in the cities, as these in the church tower in a small village.
First the female, then the male.

It is common folklore that you cannot shoot birds in action with a manual focus lens. Hereby disproven.

-Hans

Sylvia curruca

No: Møller, Eng: Lesser whitethroat, It: Bigiarella, Sci: Sylvia curruca

Dear All,
A couple of weeks ago, Harald Totland said: “Wouldn’t it be cool to see a MØLLER in (our street) Møllevegen?”  This bird is not common, in average seen in Bergen about once every year. Then the morning on the 13. of May, Harald spotted it sitting in a tree in our garden! This destroyed my morning, trying to get a photo, unsuccessfully. Fortunately, it stayed in the area for at least a week.

The photo is from our neighbourhood on May 18.

Enjoy!
-Hans