The Bearded Vulture in Lincolnshire

Having walked about 20km in the Peak district to connect with the Lammergeier earlier in the year I watched with interest as she was reported moving south through Leicester and then Oxford but she then went missing and it was hoped she had made it across the channel on her way home until last week when she was seen in Norfolk before this weeks news that she was in Lincolnshire. I was due to go yesterday but had some duties to perform at home that prevented that trip but I decided to go this morning. I left a little late and half way up realised I had left my camera cards at home so had to stop and purchase a new card in Peterborough.

On arrival at Cowbit I had just missed the bird leave its overnight roost and it was said to have flown towards the A16. After a while I did manage to connect with it in flight, being ten feet wide and with the flatness of the area you cant really miss it when it's in the air. On the ground it's more of a challenge to locate and it can disappear completely in a tree. I would say to anybody going that if it's in a tree leave it be as it's trying to rest and shouldn't be disturbed so keep a good distance from any roost/rest times.

INCOMING

It was nice to watch it feeding on a Hare carcass for a while but the flight views are what I went for and I had the most amazing time watching it. Being overcast it struggled to gain much height and on occasion flew low straight toward me. A day I will never forget. Let's hope she finds her way home at some point.

The Vulture conservancy now have a couple of her feathers so we should at some point understand her a little better. It should also be noted that they are keeping a close eye on her movements and the threat each one makes to her. It is considered that her current location can provide food and shelter with the main threat to her being traffic and turbines.

Heavily cropped distant shot of it in a tree...some got a bit too close for my liking

The BEARDED Vulture

Good camo check out the size of the Magpie to the right of it

What a monster of a bird

came in low over the bushes to land in the field in front of me

The Lammergeier 

NEVER TO BE FORGOTTEN

what a bird

Where ever it goes its mobbed by gulls and Corvids

11/10/2020 Addendum: The Vulture appeared to move south again today being "reported" over the RSPB headquarters in Sandy Bedfordshire and then later over the city of London. (I repeat reported).

Be very interesting to see where it's next reported.

12/10/2020 Vigo (this bird has a name and has international interest) was "reported over Sandy again on 12th but today 13th an image started circulating of the bird over Tunbridge Wells in Kent yesterday so it really does look as if she is finally making her way to the south coast.

14/10/2020 It now appears both Sandy Bedfordshire sightings could have been erroneous and the London sighting has more credit with the bird being seen in Tunbridge Wells on the 12th and today it was located in East Sussex where it was seen all afternoon and appeared to go to roost there too. She's now right on the south coast and a stones throw from the shortest crossing she could make across the channel at Dungeness if that's her plan.

15/10/2020 Well this morning saw another appreciative crowd watching Vigo leave her roost site in East Sussex where she spent the morning feeding and at lunchtime she took the expected high flight out to sea but she had second thoughts and turned back to land before setting off again mid afternoon where she was lost to view out to sea and we can just hope that she makes the crossing ok and can make a good life in the Alps with others of her kind.

21/10/2020 A probable sighting of Vigo 200km south of Paris

26/10/2020 A probable sighting of Vigo  near Lyon

we await a confirmed ID but the above should give hope that shes almost home.

30/10/2020 An announcement on BBC's Autumnwatch this evening revealed long awaited news of Vigos parents lineage.

Her mother was captive bread but released in 2006 in the Italian Alps

Her father was born in the wild in 2010

The pair have been together since 2016 and Vigo is their third youngster.

We now await a sighting that proves the bird is Vigo and hope that the above lineage is strong enough evidence that the bird does come from a self sustaining population that allows it to be included on the British list.