Mario junto a un quebrantahuesos subadulto en el comedero de Boumort. Foto: M. Gálvez

Con temperaturas más propias de una primavera tardía que de invierno, observábamos el pasado fin de semana a Corneli, incubando mientras miraba curioso los vuelos cercanos de un joven quebrantahuesos o a Perla en su nido, con los reclamos de un pito negro como música de fondo. Son, junto con Mario y Menta, las tres parejas de buitre negro que se han decidido a volver a criar en la RNC de Boumort (Prepirineo de Lleida) en 2012. Mientras la veterana pareja formada por Perla y Portell utilizan de nuevo el nido que en 2010 vio nacer y volar a Gala (el primer pollo nacido en Pirineos en más de 100 años), Menta y Mario y Bruna y Corneli han construído nidos nuevos, quizá con la intención de mejorar el emplazamiento y evitar el fracaso reproductor de la temporada anterior. Esperemos que este año vuelvan a volar pollos pirenaicos de buitre negro!

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