john
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« on: August 25, 2009, 01:05:40 AM » |
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On Friday 14th I got a text from two Kent friends staying in the Tarifa area that they’d had a couple of Rüppell's Vulture in the Ojen valley that afternoon - the second year running that they’ve seen the species in the area. Annoyingly, I’d been pottering around only about 15 minutes drive away. So instead of our cancelled pelagic (every time we try to see Orca’s something happens to stop the jaunt!) on Saturday, Liz and I were in the Ojen valley bright and breezy looking for vultures - well, I was looking, she was reading her book! After an hour or two our Kent friends turned up and we spent most of the rest of the day with them searching for Rüppell's. Despite there being fewer vultures about (70-80 vs 120+), they were very confident we'd relocate them, but apart from a distant 'possible' we had nothing. Naturally, that possible was one of a pair of birds seen above a distant ridge - they split up and the wrong bird flew directly over us whilst the other headed away and into the sun!
Next day Liz and I were back in the valley and we again met up with our Kentish pals who had a car load of very keen young Dutch birders in tow. Despite searching for much of the day once more we had far fewer vultures and certainly no 'possibles'. Actually with Honey Buzzards, Montie's, Black Kites, Booted & Short-toed Eagles constantly drifting over they were a couple of good days birding. It was only later that day that Liz reminded me that it was our wedding anniversary (No 34) - thank God neither of us makes a fuss about it! At least I’d had a good chance to look at photos of the birds which reminded me what I should be looking for - few books illustrate Rüppell's well and hardly any show sub-adult plumages (they take 6 years to mature I think).
Remarkably, it was Liz that suggested our third visit to the Ojen Valley (aka Oh-No-not-Ojen Valley) despite that fact that without company my chances had to be lower! After several hours searching, it was clear that even more vultures had cleared out and I was prepared to give up for another year and hope for the best in 2010. On a whim I headed down the Santuario de la Luz road hoping that the ice-cream kiosk there might be open (it wasn't), but at least this meant that I found in over 100 vultures all neatly stacked up circling above a nearby field and in perfect light! Full of hope, I methodically went through the lot - and they were all bloomin' Griffons! As they drifted away I was seriously pissed off, but not so much that I didn't notice more vultures arriving in dribs and drabs. So I continued looking and, 5 minutes later, I picked up a pair of vultures in the scope as they topped a distant ridge and, idly looping round, they made their lazy approach to where I sat.
Quite why one bird instantly rang the alarm bells I'm not sure. Rüppell's are smaller than Griffons, but sizes overlap and there can be a significant size difference between individual Griffons and besides the birds were too far away to be certain the size difference was real. Yes, it also flew with flat wings, but I'd seen enough Griffons do that to realise that not all of them always do what the field guides say they do!. Yet, despite being so distant that the image of the bird was still only "post-dot" but "pre-detail" this one looked good. Willing the bird to keep on track I watched it as it drew closer. Gradually I could resolve some detail on the bigger bird - a paler forewing and wasn't there a contrast on the upper wing? - but still I could make out little on the target bird. Then it banked shallowly - surely that was a extruded lozenge of white on an all dark underwing - and didn't it really look significantly smaller and slighter? A brief glimpse of the upperside confirmed that it was almost uniform in colour. Surely it was a Rüppell's! Happily it just kept coming towards me and even Liz - non-birder that she is and armed only with a pair of 8x20s - commented on its smaller size and darker upper wing. It flapped lazily, banked and glided at relatively close range - all ID points were confirmed and I was even able to note some pale 'scalloping' at the aft end. A Rüppell's at last! Any feelings of incompetence that my overlong search had engendered (and that it took a bumper season to get the species) were mitigated on my return home when I read the blog of a well known and respected Brit birder resident in SW Andalucia and found he still hadn’t seen the species!
I texted and left a message with our Dutch friends but got no reply. Fortunately, a few hours later I caught up with them - apparently my messages hadn't got through - and we all returned to the santuario. Keen as mustard and armed with big OG scopes the Dutch guys rapidly picked up a very distant 'suspect'. After a couple of frantic drives we caught up with the bird again. A much poorer view this time, but I was delighted to have helped them get a tick.
So in hindsight what advice would I give people looking for Rüppell's? Well first it has to be admitted that my birding trips in August are far more ‘relaxed’ than at other times – ‘birding-lite’ I call it (although Liz might disagree!). This is partly due to the excessive heat, but largely reflects that I’m there with my wife and not birding pals. Secondly, you just have to keep faith and plug away at all vultures you find. Thirdly, find your vultures – this is obvious I know, but I definitely felt that by keeping on looking until I stumbled across a decent flock was a big help. Getting them at a good light angle also helped. Fourthly, keep an eye out for any ‘Griffon’ that looks smaller and flies with flatter wings – it may still be an ‘odd’ Griffon, but it does help filter out the birds. Fifthly, in good light the distinctive features aren’t hard to see - the distinctive dark upperwing (even the darkest Griffon shows more contrast both in tone and in warmth) and that stark with ‘bird poo’ dribble on the underwing. (I described it, tongue in cheek, as a white “sub-terminal under-forewing”). Finally, it was a massive help to chat to an expert who had good recent photos – not an easy option to achieve so do your homework thoroughly & print off any good photos from the web,
John
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