Its worth a visit

Sunday 11th of September a walk up Rute Alte the mountain overlooking Rute

29/09/2011 15:38

With the company of local birder Antonio as a guide we set off mid afternoon on a slow but purposeful walk up the steep hillside overlooking Rute maily in the hope of seeing any raptor movement that may be happening.The wind was coming from the East so we were optomistic.

As we found on previous occassions the woodlands around these hills were generaly very quiet with only the occassional titmouse calling from the tree tops.

Occassionaly Crossbills could be heard flying around the tree tops but it was not until we reached the top of the hill that we were able to obtain decent views of these and a few more species.The view from the top was quite spectacular with the forested hillsides looking bright and colourfull in the late afternoon sunlight.

After about a half hour we had our first raptor when a Bonnellis Eagle flew closely overhead heading South very directly.There was at least 6 Crossbills feeding on Conifers above pour obsevation point with at least 1 male bird looking splendid in its red plumage.We had at least another half wait before our next raptor passed by this timean impressive looking female Goshawk gliding effortlessly overhead and making a sudden dive in to the woodland below.

There was a small office type building on top of the hill and a water drinking spot had been organised for birds.It was good to see 5 Coal Tits coming continuosely to drink right in front of the camera.(photogallery).

Several Short Toed Tree Creepers were heard on our upward journey but again birding was found to be very quiet generally.We stayed up on the mountain until almost the last light but apart from a very noisy displaying Kestrel no more species were added to our list.

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28/04/2021 

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