Menorca Day 13: Egyptian Vulture vs. Booted Eagle

Less tolerant in large.
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This is certainly not my best photograph of the day (possibility 1 or 2), or even my best bird photograph (possibility 1 & 2), but it was a dramatic moment which made it hard to pass over... It was a fleeting encounter; they went off the idea of fighting pretty quickly.

We set out before lunch, and just as we were approaching the main roundabout between Arenal d'en Castell and Alaior, my partner spotted a tortoise on the edge of the road. We zoomed around the roundabout and parked the car, before whizzing over to try to find it. My partner found it sheltering (it had abandoned its road-crossing attempt), turned it around, moved it away from the road, and placed into a sheltered spot facing away from the road. Gawd, I don't think that a shell would prove very protective on a road...

After lunch at Mesón El Gallo, we headed over to the Barranc d'Algendar (a gorge running from near Ferreries down to the coast at Cala Galdana); we'd visited it last year to see the Egyptian vultures that nest there, and returned this year to see the upper end of the gully (our progress from the Cala Galdana end had been barred by private properties). It was a dramatic walk: our path wound gently down into the gully past farms and a hostel, under trees and forested corridors, with the walls of the gully growing progressively taller, before we finally emerged into the depths of the gorge. We wandered along the bottom (along the side of the stream) before climbing a steep path carved out of the limestone on the other side. From the top on the other side, the gorge was entirely invisible, just dropping away beneath the trees and foliage. There was a 'limestone amphitheatre' (as described by the 'Walk! Menorca' book) from which we got some of our best views of the Egyptian vultures, perching on the cliffs on the opposite side of the gully (and one soaring along the cliff edge before landing with the others). We also saw kestrels and booted eagles. The birds were mostly pretty far away, and flew quite high up, so I didn't get many close shots, but it was wonderful to see them in such a dramatic setting, and in the contrasty early evening light.
Our return took us back along the gully (where we saw many of the birds flying together, and this tussle between one of the vultures and one of the eagles) and we climbed out via a different, more dramaic route, that was carved out of the rock itself (like the path on the opposite side), and weaved scenically through more densely forested gullies. We finally emerged back into the evening sunlight up above where we'd left the car.

Menorca photos can be found on Flickr here.
Day 13 pictures are right from here.