08/10/2010 at SAANR

After morning visit to Al Abraq, which was relatively quiet, I headed with Brian to SAANR. Mike Newey joined us over there.  Main target was, of course, White-crowned Wheatear. We managed to relocate the bird pretty quickly. It had moved a bit toward middle part of the wadi. Driving around the whole reserve produced very little. Finally we arrived to Tulha where we saw two raptors. First was Pallid Harrier but second one wasn’t immediately clear. While photographing soaring Pallid Harrier Brian asked us to pay attention to second raptor which he believed to be Bonelli’s Eagle. Indeed the bird turned out to be Bonelli’s Eagle – first for us after many years of searching it in Kuwait.

Juvenile Bonelli’s Eagle (Hieraetus fasciatus)