Ever since the October I.O.D. (International Observation day), which the Audois birders devoted to searching for our nesting pairs of bearded vulture (gypaète barbu), those of us who concentrate on the Haute Vallée d l’Aude have been hoping that the lack of firm sightings was not a sign that they have left the area.
It is not unusual for this species to change the nest site every year, often choosing another cavity within a few hundred metres of the previous one. No doubt this is for reasons of hygiene; after all, the chick will spend almost all of the first six vulnerable months of its life there, and the accumulation of debris from the food supplied by the parents will be considerable.
The climbers who courageously help when it comes to ringing time, and who abseil down into the nests of these scavenging birds, do say they can be quite smelly.
Although the main diet of adult bearded vultures is fragments of bone swallowed whole, the chick at first receives much softer and digestible food, before the powerful stomach liquids in the stomach that are capable of digesting solid bone can develop and process more solid material. It is said that the acidity of these enzymes is capable of etching glass.
Over the last few months, a few brief sightings in the area had been made, but nothing conclusive to reassure us that the parent birds were starting the hoped for reproduction activity.
The signs we are looking out for are consistently roosting together overnight, mating, choosing a nest site and stocking it with suitable materials, such as branches and sheep’s wool.
So a month later, on a beautiful sunny day, five of us separated into two groups a little further to the west of the previous nest, hoping to sight these wonderful rare birds.
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I was fortunate to choose a south facing hillside, so despite the near zero temperature at the start of the day I was soon shedding layers of clothing as the sun warmed us up. However, it was the two girls on the much cooler opposite side of the valley that looked towards us who spotted the pair together, relaxed and preening as the sun warmed them.
A slight change of position for our team and we could see them too. There they stayed, even a mating happened, before the thermals had risen enough for them to launch and very slowly gain altitude to drift off to the south. It was interesting to note that one of them seemed to master the air currents better than the other, and rise higher much quicker.
Thus, so far all is well, they are together and in the area, and hopefully will be constructing a nest soon.
Reintroducing the black vulture
The black vulture (vautour moine), the largest of all, is the only vulture that does not nest in the Aude. There are reintroduction schemes, with captive-bred birds released into the wild.
They became extinct in France 100 years ago. However, three reintroduction programmes have boosted the numbers in France to 48 breeding pairs, and there are now about 2,400 pairs breeding in Spain. Some of them are equipped with satellite trackers.
However, it was decided six or seven years ago that we in the Aude would try a different approach.
A project was conceived to stimulate nesting, using a technique that has worked with other species, but has never been tried with vultures. These birds do occasionally alight on our feeding stations, but visits are rare.
Juvenile black vultureGroupe Ornithologique du Roussillon
The fact that we seldom saw them was something that would not change unless they could be encouraged to nest here. The occasional ones that we do see are vagrants flying from Spain, but like many other species of birds they are philopatric – attached to their birth place – and will only spread slowly from this heartland; they do not migrate.
The idea works by installing a pair in an enclosed aviary, using captive birds that for various reasons are unable to look after themselves in the wild.
Black vultures nest in loose colonies, often within a restricted area in a forest, normally pine trees. As part of the plan we aimed to construct artificial nests in suitable pine trees nearby, and so attract wild birds who observed the captive pair in the aviary.
The initial work began, permission was sought from various organisations concerned with complex conservation projects of this kind. Meanwhile, funds were gathered from both public and private sources to pay for the materials that were necessary. The site was carefully chosen to be discreet but accessible for maintenance and feeding; this is a long term project with a planned 10 year duration.
The idea was that this would be a project that, if successful, any construction would eventually leave very little trace on the countryside. With this in mind large wooden posts were hauled to the selected site, and access being difficult, mules were used to haul the heavy logs.
Objections from local hunters
All was going well, the aviary and the surrounding fences were constructed and all seemed ready to fetch the allocated birds from a Spanish zoo.
Alas, at the last minute, despite support from the appropriate authorities, the local hunting association came out against the project, and have managed to put a spanner in the works via the local mayor, so we have had to dismantle the completed aviary but aim to relocate to another site, in a neighbouring commune.
It is hard to understand why ‘la Chasse’ was so obstinate in their objections to the project. Perhaps they feared restrictions on the ability to hunt in the area?
The mayor of the new commune is favourable to the project; there is already a Vulture Observation Station located in the proximity. However, the delicate negotiations continue, and we are optimistic that one day soon, the final hurdle (an authorisation from the veterinary service) will be cleared away, so this fascinating project can finally become a reality.
