The spectacular Golden Eagle Festival in Mongolia

The Daily Mail has a series of outstanding photographs of this year's Golden Eagle Festival in Mongolia, where handlers fly eagles from horseback to hunt prey.  Yahoo also has a slideshow of the Festival containing some of the same images.  The Mail reports:

The Kazakhs of the Altai mountain range in western Mongolia are the last known people in the world to still hunt with golden eagles, and today there are only some 400 eagle hunters left - a number which is shrinking still.

(Click the images for a larger view)

Every October, dozens of eagle hunters, along with a host of spectators, gather to celebrate Kazakh customs in the shadow of the Altai Mountains during the annual two day Golden Eagle Festival.

The photos were taken during the 17th edition of the festival, which was founded in 1999 to preserve the Kazakh's unique culture, tradition and to protect golden eagles.

There's more at the link.

Bird enthusiasts and those who cherish the wild outdoors will absolutely love the photographs in the Mail and at Yahoo.  They make spectacular viewing.

Here's a promotional video from a company providing tours to the Festival.  It was made a couple of years ago - I haven't been able to find a worthwhile video of this year's event yet.  Watch it in full-screen mode for best results.

Now that's something to add to my bucket list . . .

Peter