Our guide, Bernado, was very much aware that my main aim of this trip was to photograph Golden Eagle for the first time. Unforunately, the first occasion was all too brief and only half of the bird was showing above the tall grass. On the the next opportunity, one did not show at all.

So Bernardo very kindly arranged for us to visit a private site owned by a friend, and located in the mountains to the north of Leon. We arrived and settled down. A Serin was singing and just about photographable due to the distance

and I got rather excited at an approaching raptor, hoping for the Eagle but it was a Buzzard.

And then, after patiently waiting, the Eagle appeared on the ground from behind a small ridge.

As expected, it was very cautious, only just moving a little towards the hides and then was spooked by Bernado driving back to see if anything was happening. It did not return. My luck with photographing Golden Eagles has not changed.

This was the end of our visit to the Cremenes area of northern Spain. The weather was much hotter than usual for the time of year and this affected our tally of species with some serious ommissions from my anticipated list - Rock Bunting, Snowfinch, Cirl Bunting, Short-toed Treecreeper - although I was not overly concerned with other ommissions as I already had acceptable photos of those species. I am disappointed with the photos of Golden Eagle but very happy with better photos of other species. But that is wildlife.

Our guides, Bernado and Francesco from Aveshides were superb - very knowledgeable and could not do enough for us to achieve good images. I cannot recommend them highly enough

The next day we left for the 5 hour drive to El Taray, located about an hour or so south of Madrid.