Sardinian warbler (Sylvia melanocephala) - სარდინიული ასპუჭაკა

I would like to introduce a stranger bird. The one that I met only once in my life. Sardinian Warbler. It is a tiny little fellow, with great ability to mask itself among twigs and stony environment. Even though I could clearly hear its voice coming from the tree about 10 meters away in front of me, I could see nothing (and I must admit, I am quite trained in spotting birds by now). I started my camera and just took three shots of fortune. Two out of those three came out quite okay. Although it is a heavy-cropping and noise reduction, therefore quality of images are not super-exciting, but the bird itself is quite a treasure! As I haven't seen these species in my life ever before, I obviously lack any knowledge of their distribution or lifestyle. My encyclopedia for birds does not list Sardinian warbler among its many species. So, all I could figure out was from asking google about its distribution. Google says, the bird lives in some of the southern banks of Europe.

Source: http://www.birdguides.com/species/species.asp?sp=136351#

And it migrates to Northern Africa for winter. 

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We met Sardinian Warbler in Croatia during our quick visit to the beautiful island of Lokrum near Dubrovnik. Lokrum is an island of beauty, wilderness and peace. There are many, many interesting bird and animal species around. I am extremely grateful and happy for being able to travel to this beautiful place and looking forward to go back and of course... Try to take other shots of this masked bandit bird.

Thanks for reading... And don't forget to... :-)

კვირიონი Euproean bee-eater (Merops Apiaster)

Out of all the birds in the world, this is one of the prettiest, with a very specific cooing sound that I know by heart. And... Even more specific honey smell it is carrying around. The reason you ask? Well, it's literally hidden in its name.

As you could guess, bee-masters are not very fond of these birds. And I understand them. Although, there's nothing that could make an amateur photographer happier than shooting these colourful bastards with her/his camera... :-)

I remember first time I saw couple of European bee-eaters on top of the dried pine tree in my yard. Although the tree was skyscraper tall, so I could see very little and I was a very beginner knowing nothing about bird species by then. Took out my amateur camera and shot an image, which turned out to be real surprise on the computer screen.

This summer I met them again and this single one on the LHS photo, let me quite close to take a shot. I climbed an unstable rock and deserved a photo-session from this crazy one. :-) I could hardly breath of happiness and very little I could do with my camera setup as well. Overall, the photos are not very bad I think. And I am looking forward for another meeting with bee-eaters!

Thanks for reading!

And don't forget to... :-)

მთის არწივი - The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetus)

 And now... Time to introduce you to my favourite - the golden eagle. The one who is outstanding, lovely, smart, beautiful and powerful.

If one has to dream about something crazy, I would dream of being friends with an Eagle.

Having a photo of an eagle
was my biggest dream in photography. Thanks to my precious family, this dream came true. We met the golden eagle during our trip around Georgia, right outside Khertvisi village, not very far from the cave city ''Varzdia''.

What I experienced during this meeting, was real pleasure of meeting someone very powerful. He took off in front of our car. Lifted its heavy butt up in the sky, circled around the gorge from one hill to another, then came back. Gave us its vicious glance, gained altitude and flew away...

Thanks for reading! Do share if you care. And don't forget to... :-)

ოფოფი - Hoopoe (Upupa epops)

I do not know much about Hoopoes other than that they are lovely and funny. As a kid, I used to see them from the window sitting on the twigs of nearby trees, flying around, sitting down in the yard and then going away...

It has been years that I have lost them from my eyesight. And I was sad, and I was wondering where they were. Last summer - I discovered this Hoopoe while travelling around in Georgia. Not in my yard, but not far away from home.

Here's the photo of a Hoopoe posing to us. I took the shot from the sunroof of the car, holding my breath with the hope that I would capture one good photo...

Hoopoe posing. Heavy zooming. Vardzia area, Georgia.