Having heard the news in early May that 3 White-backed Vultures with up to 20 Rüppell´s Vultures alongside young returning Griffon Vultures staging at the Jbel Moussa were possibly looking to cross The Straits into Europe, I was intent on finding a White-backed Vulture!
Since then I have logged over 60 hours watching at key positions and watchpoints along The Straits Spanish coastline, only stopped by periods of intense levante wind. I was rewarded this year alone with up to 10 different individuals of Rüppell´s Vultures but despite this rare African Vulture making the crossing, the White-backed was seemingly more reluctant.
It took until the 14th June for me to be on point! In the morning there had been a fairly intense burst of late spring migration with Black Kites, Booted and Short-toed Eagles crossing with the odd European Honey Buzzard and a few groups of Griffon Vultures.
Then it was quiet. The thought had crossed my mind to move somewhere else, but I´m a die-hard for staying in the same spot and the wind was right for there, although nothing much was flowing.
A Peregrine-type arrived on the scene, being harassed by Lesser Kestrels. However this was an odd-looking Peregrine, even taking into account the smaller and often orange-washed look of the brookei race that occurs here. After some deliberations it seemed to fit more with a possible Barbary Falcon.
After conversations with quite a few people including Dick Forsman, Javi Elorriaga, Alejandro Onrubia, M Irvin, S Gillies and others it seemed to fit. Short wings, pattern of barred tail, that narrow-tapering moustachial and clearly a juvenile!
Of course we are here at the intergradation of Africa to Europe and as Dick Forsman points out, a possible intergrade cannot be ruled out;
¨Very difficult to say for sure, as they interbreed in your area with many intermediates. However, the head markings and the extensive pale scaling above makes me think Barbary, but IMO an intergrade of some sort can’t be eliminated¨ – Dick Forsman
It soon drifted off. I was upset it didn’t stick around for longer but as the Woodchat Shrikes began hunting right next to me I began scanning The Straits again… nothing… a few Scopoli´s Shearwaters offshore but no soaring birds taking on The Straits! So I watched the comings and goings of the now completely friendly Woodchat Shrikes between scans – after all I have spent a lot of time with them ! Likely because it´s just me and I’m quiet (apart from the odd mumble!) they were by now seemingly quite happy hunting for beetles in front of me!
…Ok back to scanning !
By then it had hit that midday lull, but I continued scanning, driven on by my tendency to have intense FOMO! I see what I think is a Griffon Vulture clearly struggling with altitude, crossing without the aid of others to show it the way or seek out easier air currents. The wind as I calculated it should bring it into the watchpoint on the hill where I´m sat! I’m willing it to make it – just imagine if that is the White-backed I think to myself… As it gets closer, it looks smaller, streaky, but not like a Rüppell´s. I spend the next eternity talking myself out of it! I clearly want to see a WBV so maybe that is influencing my identification. Now the light is good! It banks just as it makes Europe. It is CLEARLY a WHITE-BACKED VULTURE!!!!
I am shaking I can´t get a photo because I don´t know what to do but it is clearly exhausted and crash lands on the bank right in front of me! I can´t believe it!
I literally hold my breath to take these pictures because if I don´t I’m going to be shaking too much …deep breath and yes!!
The increase in Eurasian Griffon Vulture numbers in Europe may be at least partly responsible for increased occurrences here of vagrant Rüppell’s Vultures and now perhaps White-backed Vultures will continue to do the same, as this leads to an increase in the number of young Griffons dispersing from and returning to Europe.
These largely sedentary critically endangered African Vulture species mix with young Griffons in The Sahel and get caught up in the return flow of these #Birds across The #Straits.
Only when it took to the air once again did I notice that it had a GPS and blue ring identifying it to be one of the individuals that Rachid El Khamlichi had ringed and tagged. I quickly contacted Rachid as it drifted off to the west. Rachid confirmed this as a 3rd year (GA03) and its route across The Straits equipped with a GPS by the #Vulture rehabilitation centre of Jbel Moussa, #Morocco
Thanks to the tagging data from CRV Jbel Moussa Centre de Réhabilitation des Vautours we could see that GA03 roosted on the very northern edge of the Parque Natural de Los Alcornocales and the western side of the Sierra de Grazalema, then left the roost and headed towards Jerez de la Frontera and then back towards the Sierra de Grazalema.
It will be very interesting to see if this bird is seen again in the field. The low detectability of this species is more so than for Rüppell´s as evidenced by the White-backed Vulture ringed and GPS-tagged in The Straits by Fundación Migres (funded by Inglorious Bustards and Viking Optical). This White-backed Vulture 799/Viking did a tour of Spain and visited some very-well watched areas, but was not detected in the field. Only when it crossed into Portugal was it detected, seemingly on its way back to The Straits. As it arrived in The Straits (and it was getting interesting!) the tag sadly failed and the fate of 799 is unclear.
A young Rüppell’s Vulture in central Portugal was taken into care for rehabilitation and subsequently released after being fitted with a GPS tracker. This Rüppell’s Vulture was named “Vouzela” and tagging was conducted in a collaboration by the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF).
Vouzela represents only the third time in Europe and the first time in Portugal that a Rüppell’s Vulture has been fitted with a GPS tag. The question of whether these vagrant African Vultures return to sub-Saharan Africa was subsequently proven as Vouzela crossed The Straits of Gibraltar and on to Northern Senegal.
Did Vouzela originate from colonies in the Sahel or perhaps an unknown intra-specific breeding in Eurasian Griffon Vulture colonies in Iberia?
Increased tagging and monitoring is essential to better understand the movements of declining African Vultures, particularly vagrant individuals, and to ensure we fully diagnose all the potential and multi-variate conservation issues critically endangered African Vultures face as their European congeners’ population continues to increase.
White-backed Vultures are usually sedentary in many areas, although in west Africa they move north between the July and September wet season to less densely vegetated areas, and then south again in the dry season.
White-backed Vultures just like Rüppell´s Vulture are critically endangered. Not considered of conservation concern until 2007, after which its threat status has been elevated, becoming Critically Endangered in 2015 following severe decline in several parts of range and likelihood of continuing decline. The commonest and most widespread Vulture in Africa is now suffering rapid declines.
One photographed near Tétouan, on the Tangier Peninsula by Rachid El Khamlichi, in late May 2014 is the first reported from Morocco but with at least 3 at the Jbel Moussa this year alone. In Spain there are just 6 records all from The Straits; 2008, 2009, 2011 and two including the tagged 799 in 2021 and now GA03 of 2024.
