Raptors, Marettimo Sicily (1 Viewer)

[Kinthissa]

Warm wishes to everyone for the new year

starting with an "old" bird, seen 11 February 2017, one that I never figured out

looks rather short-tailed in all the blurry pix, and very long wings in proportion

Any chance of an id?

 

[tconzemi]

Happy new year to you too
big head, rather short tail, five fingers and primaries white are all good for Common Buzzard. The last pic must be a different bird?

 

[Kinthissa]

Thank you, Tom, and that's a funny start to my bird id year, I had a feeling the answer was going to be obvious! Curiously, I've hardly seen CBs on Marettimo.

Good you are pointing out the last pic, it does look different (the tail's looking longer in relation to body and hands more tapered). What do you think it is?

I would like to check 2 birds from 31st October 2019.

no. 1 - Peregrine?

nos. 2, 3, 4&5 a dark smallish raptor whizzing along the cliff-edged northern end of Marettimo

(if Eleonora's falcons nest on Marettimo, I think it would be in this extensive area of steep cliffs really accessible only from the sea)

There appears to be some dark on the face, and a terminal bar on the tail. A falcon, any chance it was an Eleonora?

But in the first of these photos (no.2) it looks more Harrier-like, a small Harrier, a dark Montagu? but so late in the season?

 

[lou salomon]

1 is a peregrine, 2 definitely one of the 4-fingered harriers. wingtip looks better for pallid to my eyes.

 

[tconzemi]

1 is a peregrine, 2 definitely one of the 4-fingered harriers. wingtip looks better for pallid to my eyes.

and to my eyes too, also late season might be better for Pallid but impossible to go further than Monty/Pallid with any certainty

the last pic in first thread looks Kestrel to my eyes but very difficult angle

 

[lou salomon]

i'm not really satisfied with the buzzard option for bird 1 (post 1). it soars with a closed tail which is hardly imaginable for a common buzzard. can't really come up with a better solution though...

 

[Kinthissa]

Thank you Lou and Tom, this is exciting, glad to be on the trail again. A Harrier, and I've never seen a Pallid in my life.

About the bird in the first post (CB or ?)), the persistently flat-winged flight put me off considering Common Buzzard, and the closed tail didn't give me any clue.

One more question please to wrap up autumn visit to Marettimo:

Throughout the last week of October into first week of November, the movement was of Booted eagles (I saw only pale morph). They appeared in the mornings hunting over the slopes, and were gone by afternoon, so it seemed they were not the over-wintering individuals.

On my last morning 7th November, there was a largish falcon, looking pale in the early morning light. I'd never seen Peregrines at the southern end of Marettimo, their haunts appear to be more towards the middle of the island. And this one seemed rather slim for a Peregrine.

Since the Saker in September 2018, I have been hoping to see a wanderering falcon from the Sicilian mainland. So just to check, is it in fact a Peregrine (the dark nape)? Perhaps it was a migrant Peregrine (nos.1,2,3 below).

 

[Maëlle]

Could the first bird be a Short toed Eagle moulting primaires?

 

[Kinthissa]

> Could the first bird be a Short toed Eagle moulting primaires?

Hi Maëlle, thank you for your comment. Are you referring to the 5th photo in the first post, of bird(s) seen in February 2017?

... in which case, it does not look like an STE to me, but I have read that some STEs have been known to over-winter in Sicily (see https://www.bou.org.uk/mellone-short-toed-eagle-migration/)

 

[tconzemi]

falcon in #7 is Peregrine indeed

 

[Kinthissa]

It's good to confirm that, Tom, thank you. I was hopeful at the time of sighting, but when I saw that dark nape in the photos ... there must be other obvious indications of differences between Peregrine, Saker and Lanner, which I have yet to recognize.