Short-toed snake eagle

First and foremost, thank you for all the comments, visits, stars and favs for my jumping deer of yesterday - I was quite overwhelmed by the response - thank you so much.

So, out today, after lunch and got this photo of a buzzard in a dead tree, although it wasn't acting too much like a buzzard, but there you go.

A friend came around as I was uploading my photos and on seeing this photo, he let out a long WAOUH!! - which is French for WOW!

He then asked me where I took the photo, telling me that it wasn't a Buse (buzzard), but a Circaète Jean-Le-Blanc - Circaetus Gallicus - a short-toed snake eagle.

This was later quite clear to me that it wasn't a buzzard, look at the flattened top of the head, the recessed eyes and the coloring.

Here's another view

This eagle eats mainly snakes, as the name would suggest, which sort of rang a bell in my head to a couple of years ago, driving along I heard a huge thud on the windscreen - what I thought was a buzzard had caught a snake, flew to a great height then dropped the snake, presumably to kill it.

I had a 1.5 meter grass snake that nearly smashed my windscreen and almost made me jump through the roof of the car, so much it was a surprise - it could have been a snake eagle - although regulars to my journal will remember a red kite that had caught a snake that I published a few months ago.

This is not a great pic again, as it has been cropped - but I'm really pleased to have captured another rare bird that I will make up for it in quality in later blips - promise.

So that makes, in my rare (ish) birds list :

Bee eater
Black shouldered kite
Short-toed snake eagle
Osprey
Golden oriole
Purple heron

I'm really quite pleased about all that - for a real amateur!

Hope you are having a lovely Thursday