At the end of September I spent an extremely pleasant week down in Cornwall. Very relaxing, full of Tribute and fish & chips.....but bird-wise it was very slow. In fact to describe it as pedestrian would be an exaggeration. And on my return it was with subsequent envy (and vicarious pleasure, I guess) that I read Simon's updates of what turned out to be a pretty decent week for him.
So I was a little bit desperate to see something good before I went back to work. Luckily "Vigo" the wandering Lammergeier kindly obliged. The results of DNA analysis on its feathers have recently been published, so we can now apply a gender specific pronoun and say that she resurfaced in Norfolk and Lincs after departing the Peak District a couple of weeks previously.
So off I went to the big sky flatlands of the fens just north of Peterborough, where the bird was swiftly located, and a crowd gathered, blocking up the roads and no doubt infuriating the local farmers and commuters.
Quite simply this was a magnificent bird. Beautiful - no, not really. Impressive - heck yes. Particularly in flight, where its attendant mobbing crows crowded around it like ineffectual gnats. She circled the roadside fields pretty low, before pouncing on something unidentifiable and long dead, and proceeded to scoff it down. See below for very amateur video.
Subsequently there were widely published photos of the bird actually holding up traffic as it crossed the road. I suppose that detracts a little from the "authenticity" of the sighting, if such a thing means anything. It didn't to me tbh, even if the bird is seemingly destined for Cat E.
I never thought I'd see a vulture in the UK, and I'm thoroughly glad I made the effort before she finally tired of this country (don't really blame her given.....well, everything).
So not a bad bird to mark my return to this blog! Hopefully my next entry, whenever that is, will describe something equally exciting.
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