Kate and I started the day quite mistaken. After we had eaten breakfast, we went back to our rooms to wait for Laszlo. We had a rather relaxing 45 minutes when, with horror, I realised that we were supposed to meet Laszlo at the bar rather than our house! Half an hour late already, we scurried down to the bar to find that Laszlo was running late himself and hadn't yet arrived. Phew!

Once he had turned up, we drove into the nearby hills to begin the raptor survey. We began in a forest dominated by deciduous woodland, which was where we met Laszlo's AGORA colleague Paul. It was a site known for a Lesser Spotted Eagle nest. We were lucky to catch a glimpse of the bird of prey! On our way out of the forest we almost trod on a small common frog which was camouflaged in the leaf litter. It was a very good poser, as it didn't even flinch when we took the photos!

We moved onto another hilltop where we sat to observe the raptors. Beautiful scenery down below, with green rolling hills that were interspersed with forest. Perfect for picking out buzzards or eagles gliding in the wind.

Soon it was lunch so we stopped by a river which had calved out a small gorge. It was scorching hot, with very little shade. Despite this, we very gladly sat down to eat food. Simon created an immense sandwich which included all the food there was to eat: ewes milk cheese, bread and squirty cheese, cucumber and fresh spring onions.

After lunch we went to our final site which was situated within the graveyard of a church. We walked into very steep woodland and observed a flock of grey herons circling overhead. They had also nested there so occasionally they would land in the treetops above. A couple of buzzards also arrived and one caught a crow chick as prey! Amazing to see.

One a slightly smaller scale we also found a large beetle with iridescent blue colours on its shell, crawling about in the undergrowth.

Paul took us back to the village. He kindly offered to post the postcards that Michael, Simon and Kate had written. Michael had nine to dispose of, to which Paul exclaimed repeatedly "Jesus!".

Michael and Simon stayed at our house for a bit to simply chill out and chat. They then went home for their meals. Kate and I had dinner which was homemade tomato soup, pork in mushroom sauce and a side of pasta. Kate developed a huge lump on her arm which looked like an extra muscle! We're pretty sure it was just a mosquito bite that had over-reacted. Hopefully.

We chilled out, napped and messed around for the rest of the evening before going to bed.

BIRD SPECIES SPOTTED:
Lesser Spotted Eagle (M) x 1
Meadow Pippet x 1
Kestrel x 1
Hobby x 1
Shrike x 1