The beginning of 2011 could not be better, with 4 pairs laying eggs in Boumort Reserve, between 22th February and 9th March. Two of them did not have chicks and stopped incubation after 86 and 74 days. The last 2 pairs saw how their chicks hatched but one of them lost it with one week old and the last one, formed by the experienced pair of 2010 (Perla & Portell), with 55 days old. We don’t know yet the reason, but at least the last one (Bruna & Corneli) could be caused by a Golden Eagle attack.

Black Vulture colonies have low productivity when forming, due to the lack of experience of the breeding birds. We hope 2012 to be the year when the first Pyrenean colony after more than 100 years and formed by 5 pairs, begin to grow up with force.

On 22th February Pessonada & Hortó layed the first egg of the season. Followed by Menta & Mario (25th Febr.) and Perla & Portell (1st March), all of them using man-made nests rebuilded by themeselves with sticks brought in every turn. Bruna & Corneli are still visiting some nests in their territory, but they have not decided the final location yet.

With these results, the first Black Vulture colony in the Catalan Pyrenees begins to consolidate, with 4 stable pairs (a fifth pair lost the male last December) and 20 individuals in total in the reintroduction area. Moreover, French vultures still appear and remain in the area (2 birds in this moment) as well as Iberian dispersive birds.

Inmature Spanish Imperial Eagle

Last June, for the second time in few weeks, an inmature Spanish Imperial Eagle Aquila adalberti was observed in the area where the Black Vulture Reintroduction Project in Catalonia is based (Boumort-Alinyà). Few days ago, another (or maybe the same bird) has been located in Navarra region, also in the Pyrenean area. These observations are not the first one for the area (even in Catalonia) but they coincide with a n increasing number of sightings and longer stays of Iberian Black Vultures in the area, some of them comming from Central Spain (at least 2 ringed birds from Madrid colonies).

It is well knonw that Imperial Eagles usually feed on carrion, and so, eagles use vultures as information source to find food. Juvenile dispersal areas of both Black Vultures and Imperial Eagles are largely the same, as they show maps of satellital banded eagles and vultures (Grefa and others).

Even being cautious due to the few information about this issue, we can preview a positive and absolutely unexpected effect of the Black Vulture reintroduction project in the Pyrenees on the expansion of the Spanish Imperial Eagle towards the North and East of the Iberian Peninsula, where the species, as did Black Vultures, disappeared more than a century ago. A new population of vultures in the Pyrenees increases the probability that dispersal immatures vultures, born in the Iberian traditional colonies, appear in the region and following them, also juveniles Spanish Imperial Eagles.

]]> http://en.blackvulture-pyrenees.org/2010/08/02/the-reintroduction-project-could-be-helping-the-expansion-of-the-spanish-imperial-eagle-towards-ne-spain/feed/ 0 http://en.blackvulture-pyrenees.org/2010/07/29/gali-the-first-chick-of-black-vulture-born-in-the-pyrenees-has-been-ringed/ http://en.blackvulture-pyrenees.org/2010/07/29/gali-the-first-chick-of-black-vulture-born-in-the-pyrenees-has-been-ringed/#comments Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:50:06 +0000 marc.galvez http://en.blackvulture-pyrenees.org/?p=54

Gali durante su marcaje. Foto: Jordi Bas

The date of 16th July 2010 will be remembered as the day when the first chick of Black Vulture born in the Catalan Pyrenees (thanks to the reintroduction project) was ringed, after the species disappeared from the region a century ago.

Almost all the members of the team were present that day, when crystallized the reintroduction project of the Black Vulture in the Boumort Reserve. At 12 am we arrived to the pine holding the nest where Perla and Portell brought to life, almost 3 months ago, Gali, a surprise that even now we hardly believe. Mario climbed to the top of the tree and put Gali into a bag. Once on the ground, the chick was brought to a fresh place in order to band it and take as measures as possible. The first checking told us that Gali was completey fit (almost 5 kg). Some hundreds of pictures later, and after being banded with metall and plastic rings as well as with satellital transmitter (kindly sponsorized by Red Eléctrica de España company and fixed to Gali’s body by Victor García, an expert of the Spanish Government), Gali was brought back to the nest, together with some extra food as a gift for bothering him/her (we will have to wait for the blood test to now the sex). Thanks to the satellital transmitter we will be testimonies of Gali’s adventures, perhaps through many Iberian areas or even French colonies during the juvenile dispersion until he/she dicide to come back to the birth place, in the Catalan Pyrenees!

Mario cogiendo a Gali en el nido. Foto: Jordi Bas

This Black Vulture, born in a Belgian zoo, was the first hacking of the project in Alinyà Mountain on August 2007. Although the sadness produced by any Black Vulture’s death among the members of the project, Inici’s lost goes one step beyond because he moved many people looking after him hopping that he could finally fly and live in the Catalan Pyrenees. Almost 3 years after he flew for the first time, and beeing finishing his juvenile dispersion throughout Spain and Europe, we had convinced him to live in the Pyrenees. As still an inmature bird, he was still carrying out some prospective displacements, when he found his death. We would like to thank all the people that shared some of the times of Inici’s life: the personnel of Planckendael Zoo, the volunteers (over 30) that spent over 600 h watching Inici when he was still at the hacking’s platform and all European ornithologis’t who kindly sent us their Inici’s observations during the juvenile dispersion.

We are waiting the necropsy results that will explain us the death cause. This results will allow us to  keep fighting against the threats of these majestic birds still have.