Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Summertime short toed eagle near Benghazi

In early October I got pretty excited about seeing a short toed eagle near Shahat. A couple of Libyan friends soon told me it is a known summer breeding bird here - at least its known to them but the guidebooks don't show it. 


Well Essam Bourass recently posted a picture of a Libyan short toed eagle on facebook.  I got a flight shot at distance in October but this close up of a perching bird trumps me.

Short toed eagle, Tocra by Essam Bourass

Possibly the most interesting thing about the picture (apart from its detail) is that it was taken near Tocra quite close to Benghazi. Now Tocra is 100 kilometres west of Shahat so either the bird is quite widespread or it can roam a long way.  It's something to find out next summer.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Robert
    1- about Short toed eagle,we saw this bird in the summer last years all time on electric tower in Tukra and Tolmita road (I have clear photos), and some friends told me saw it breeding ,I will confirm this news at next year.
    2- about redshank with Snipe ,I think also marsh sandpiper not Redshank,
    Thank you for this information
    Jaber yahya

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  2. Jaber. Great to hear from you. Thanks for the info on the short toed eagle. It makes more sense for it to have been a little further east than Benghazi itself but nevertheless it is still quite a long way west of Shahat.

    As for the bird next to the snipe - there was a flock of redshank in there - the noise alone gave them away. I'm not sure you are right about it being a marsh sandpiper though - bill, legs etc but as there is doubt I'll change the text after all the story is about the snipes and it was them I was concentrating on!

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