In late September 2017 Mark and I were in the Tarifa area watching the raptor migration which was superb but typically tailed off late mornings and at such times we would take a wander up to La Janda or some other birding sites nearby. On this day it was getting pretty hot and we were driving the tracks east of La Janda looking for migrants and raptors. The problem of course with trying to photograph raptors out of car windows is that they invariably appear on the opposite side to where you are sitting and the lens hits the roof or the driver’s head or the back of the seat as panic sets in. This was a really beautiful bird even in terms of juvenile Monties all of which are amazing, and it was pretty close which made it even harder to get it in focus and follow it but I managed a few shots and the light reflecting up from the parched ground illuminating its underparts combined with the sun on its upper parts and the nicely blurred background made it one of the images of the trip for me as a harrier lover. It reminds me of an Ian Lewington painting.

Canon 5D4 with Canon 400DO2 lens and 1.4x converter

1/1600th second at f5.6 and ISO 500