High in the skies

No free theme this time in this week's SMAP, but a fun theme nevertheless: this week is all about the big birds!

I can't say the bird I'm featuring is a huge one, but for sure isn't one of the tiny ones either. And the joy I feel on seeing them is huge, so I'll add it to the size!

In a time where fires devastated their habitat, and all around the main landscape was scorched land, it was great to see some of the booted eagles tham roam the sky near my grandparents village have survived.

They used to fly really low near the village's pool, close enough to identify them without the need of binoculars or a camera zoom.

Funny note, the booted eagles can exist in two different colour patterns, a darker one and a clearer one. Here, the latter is the one that appears the most, and it's also the easiest to identify, given the amount of white on the wings underparts: lucky me! In the photo below the colour pattern of the wings is clearly seen; and if I recall correctly there aren't other birds of prey in Portugal with wings like this.

I've seen more than one, and this was the first time I saw them flying through the village; probably a consequence of the devastation all around.

Mother nature is strong, and everything will grow again. And I hope the number of these beauties multiplies in that process!