These amazing pictures and text were published in the latest La Plume du Circaète. Few of them were included in the previous galleries of Bernard Joubert on our site. Then, several new photos taken in March 2016 have been added and described by the author. Many thanks to him for sharing the pictures and especially for detailed comments on them, also to Ferenc and Gábor Papp for their kind help in the translation!
Moments of life
During these 20 years, while we have been following the Short-toed Eagles, we could obtain numerous pictures taken in ideal conditions, some of which we later published, however, I never played with the thought seriously that I should take advantage of it since photography is very laborious and has little use in conservation.
Nevertheless, in 2010, I decided that I would give it a try at a nest site where I could do it without any disturbance. In January, I built a hide, which I dug in the ground about twenty metres from the nest. I made a frame of beech and covered it with smaller pine branches. This nest site seemed to attract this particular pair, they visited it during last autumn several times.
I made myself comfortable in the hide in the first days of March, not knowing how remarkable moments and wonderful events of the everyday life I would experience soon.
I used a quite mediocre Nikon camera with 110 mm equivalent focus length*, but still I could record their whole breeding cycle except incubation without being noticed by them.
I would like to share a few pictures…
Bernard Joubert
* – also, photos taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 are included.
