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Vultures over the Tajo – Spring in Monfragüe

April 2023, Extremadura: Monfragüe National Park is Europe's best address for vultures — hundreds of griffons breed in the quartzite walls above the Tajo, joined by cinereous vultures, black storks, and all the colour the Spanish spring can muster: rollers, hoopoes, bee-eaters. Three days at the viewpoints, gear notes included.

Griffon vulture soaring with fully spread wings against a blue sky, Monfragüe — Almost three metres of wingspan at eye level: griffon vulture at the Salto del Gitano — Canon EOS R5, RF 100-500 mm + 1.4x at 700 mm, 1/3200 s, f/11, ISO 4000.

Salto del Gitano: vultures by the minute

The park's most famous viewpoint sits right by the road: a massive rock wall above the Tajo, a car park opposite — and in between, griffon vultures cruise past so close that too much focal length is a bigger risk than too little. The birds launch with the first thermals of the morning, patrol along the wall and crash-land on the breeding ledges. Stay an hour and you have every phase of flight; stay three and you start working the details — the outstretched neck just before touchdown, the splayed primaries in the updraft.

Close-up of a griffon vulture passing by with pale head and neck ruff, Monfragüe — A fly-past at portrait distance — 700 mm, 1/3200 s, ISO 1600.

Griffon vulture seen from above, flying over the quartzite cliffs, Monfragüe — Looking down on a vulture: approach to the breeding cliff — 700 mm, 1/2500 s, ISO 1250.

View across the Tajo to the rock wall of the Salto del Gitano, Monfragüe — The stage: the Tajo below the Castillo de Monfragüe — RF 28-70 mm at 28 mm.

Spring provides the colour

Between vulture sessions the dehesa belongs to the colourful returnees from Africa: rollers take up their posts on the power lines, hoopoes probe between the stones, and above the glittering reservoir a black stork passed by — against the backlight almost graphic art rather than photograph.

European roller with turquoise plumage perched on a power line, Extremadura — Fresh back from Africa: European roller — 700 mm, 1/1600 s, ISO 400.

Hoopoe with raised crest standing on a stone, Extremadura — Hoopoe with its crest half raised — 700 mm, 1/2500 s, ISO 1000.

Black stork flying as a silhouette over glittering backlit water — Black stork over the glitter — 500 mm, 1/3200 s, ISO 1000.

The gear: extender weather

Monfragüe is a case for reach in perfect light: the Canon EOS R5 carried the RF 100-500 mm with the 1.4x extender almost permanently — 700 mm at f/10-f/11, which the Spanish spring sun happily supports at 1/2500 s to 1/3200 s. For the flight shots along the wall: pick the bird up early, pan through, let the background do the work — the rock face gives the vulture depth, the blue sky gives it clarity. The RF 28-70 mm f/2 handled the landscapes. And the evening routine is a running theme on this blog by now: card into the Mac, review, file — today RAWFetcher does it straight from the card.

More field reports

Bee-eaters and a lynx in Doñana, white-tailed eagles on Smøla, grizzlies in British Columbia — all field reports on the blog.

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