(Photo: Golden Eagle)

We (The Lothlorien Nemeton) live amongst some beautiful mountains and are surrounded by some pretty cool wildlife. I recently did some looking on the internet to see what I could find about the Prades, anything. Historically, ecologically, geographically and found there’s quite a lot in English. One in particular led me to write this blog, as it mentioned birds of prey that can be found here.

Above our place in the valley are beautiful cliffs and often we hear and sometimes see eagles around there because they have a nest up there. We sometimes even have some suprising views of them by the side of the road, whether sitting on a branch or flying off.

Now being an Englishman from the South East, seeing a bird of prey is quite something. I’ve seen Buzzards flying high and obviously who hasn’t seen a Kestrel hovering at the side of a motorway. I’ve even seen Red Kites when I was doing work up near oxfordshire, but never a wild eagle! Apparently there’s only one pair of Golden Eagles in England, in the Lake District and all the rest live in Scotland or Wales.

Mika has been telling me that there are a few of eagle here in the Prades mountains. First is the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) , which is quite well know in most of the Northern Hemisphere. Then there’s the Imperial Eagle (Aquila Heliaca Adalberti) , though which Imperial Eagle I’d guess must be the local Iberian type. And apparently, I found on a website, that there are, or were, some Bonelli’s Eagles. This is quite a wealth of eagles to have around, especially for me but even then, their may well be plenty more types around aswell.

Also, there’s plenty of other birds of prey. There’s kestrels, though those I don’t usually see them in the mountains, often we see hawks and/or peregrine falcons (not that I can tell the difference) sitting on powerlines beside roads and at nights there are owls about, looking after things when all other birds have gone to bed.

I think I’ve whet my appetite a bit, I’m definately going to be scouting around on the ‘net for more things that inhabit these beautiful mountain, and with a bit of extra insight, who knows, I might spot things that I may never have noticed before!

-Adam-