Tuesday, and it’s a working day as usual up above Lanjaron. With my shift over however I grabbed the chance to check out the flocks of Swifts swarming over the hillside above the house. I had heard but didn’t see Bee Eaters up there somewhere and was hoping for a glimpse of one of our more glamourous summer migrants…instead I had an unexpected but welcome surprise.
I thought I saw a flash of white in amongst the hordes of dark brown Swifts overhead that didn’t make sense..clearly not that of a Swallow or a House Martin and I knew in the back of my mind what I’d seen. I started scanning them properly, following individual birds for a while, sticking with it until I got the view I was waiting for. Alpine Swifts! Difficult to pin point in the swirling mass of Swifts but first one, then another and then another. Definitely bigger than the much more familiar Swift but it was their snow white undersides that proved distinctive…some passed by close enough for me to see their white chins and throats and I knew without any doubt I’d finally managed to see them. Alpine Swifts are a rare sight north of their southern European range and I had hoped to find them down here in Spain. A brand new bird for me…a life-first and right on the doorstep. Great! I won’t take flocks of Swifts and hirundines for granted any more…
As I watched the huge concentration of birds feeding over the valley a dark-form Booted Eagle drifted into view. Not known particularly for taking birds in mid-air the Swifts seemed to unsettle it as it soared through them, mobbing behaviour surely an irritation as it attempted to hunt. I lost it for a while but it reappeared and it had indeed made a kill. I could see a bird in its talons but if it had managed somehow to take a Swift in the confusion I couldn’t tell. Possibly an injured individual or a completely different species, I’m not sure…to me it seemed to consider eating its prey on the wing, but the constant attention from the throng around it proved too much and it suddenly folded its wings and dived spectacularly out of view. Superb natural history, and to find it all I had to do was pick up my binoculars…
