Bone Crusher at Cutthroat Bridge

Ok so this bearded vulture turned up in the UK about four weeks ago having previously been seen in the Channel Islands, Belgium and the Netherlands. It was seen sporadically in various places until last weekend when it was finally pinned down in the Peak District near Ladybower Reservoir. It was roosting on a rock in a valley which was about a two hour walk from the nearest parking spot, uphill and across a blanket bog, and that's assuming that you could get parked because there was so little room. As if that wasn't bad enough, the bird often left the roost at dawn, around 5.45am, so if you wanted to be guaranteed to see the bird you needed to be there before it flew which meant starting walking at about 3am, with most of the walk more or less in darkness. Not an appealing thought.

Apart from the hardships involved in getting to the roost site, initially it didn't appeal to me because although nobody disputes that it's a wild bred bird, it most likely originates from a release scheme in the Alps and will probably only appear on the British list as Category E, i.e. an extremely dodgy tick. It's also one of the tattiest looking birds I've ever seen with amongst other things an almost none existent tail, which in my opinion is one of the main assets of a bearded vulture. Sure it's a big bird with a wingspan of around 2.75m, but size isn't everything and besides it's only six months ago I was watching wandering albatross with a wingspan of 3.5m.

However..... over the past week or so I've watched a steady stream of respected friends and birders being drawn to the bird and almost without exception reporting back in glowing terms, obviously seeing something in the bird which I didn't. Perhaps one reason they are going is for an insurance tick, because nobody actually knows for sure where the bird originates from. The Alps may be favourite but the Pyrenees can't be ruled out at the moment and if it's from there then the bird would be elevated to the heady heights of Category A, i.e. a genuine wild bird and a bona fida tick. But how will we ever know? Well all it needs is a feather. Apparently DNA extracted from a feather can pin down exactly where the bird is from. Just yesterday somebody found a feather which was at first thought to be from the vulture, and although some doubt now seems to surround this particular feather, it was a close shave. Surely it's only a matter of time before such a tatty looking individual sheds another feather? Perhaps after the bird leaves somebody will examine the area around the roost site and strike gold? Perhaps when it's soaring overhead and being mobbed by ravens it will drop a feather? So imagine ignoring a bearded vulture on your doorstep because you think it will be consigned to Category E and then after it's gone finding out from a feather that it was from the Pyrenees. Bit of a sickener I should imagine, so in an effort to avoid that scenario, I decided it was time to join the party.

Photo: Bearded vulture presumably moulting.
What's one more feather? 

Still not quite convinced though, I couldn't bring myself to do the long slog to the roost site at 3am this morning. My attitude was, yes I want to see this bird as well as I can but with minimum effort and with the least impact on the rest of my day. So instead of rising in the early hours and setting out in the dark, I left home at the respectable hour of 7.45am following a hearty breakfast and headed for the charmingly named Cutthroat Bridge car park on the A57 where the bird had been seen overhead a few times during the past few days. When I arrived at the car park at 9am there were already plenty of birders present and there were no spaces left for me, but fortunately I just managed to squeeze into a space right on Cutthroat bridge itself about 100m west of the car park. I then ignored the main group of birders and headed up onto the side of Moscar Moor where I found about five other birders all socially distanced and looking south over Bamford Moor. They'd already seen the bird briefly in flight and thought that they had it perched on a rock but very distant. It was hard to say at that distance, but it looked good and mentally I'd already ticked it, that was until the real bird suddenly appeared flying over the ridge a little further to the left, consigning my original sighting to the bin of misidentified rocks.

Very slowly over the next 15 minutes it made it's way towards us, circling around, occasionally mobbed by ravens or buzzards, and eventually it went right overhead and past us before miraculously coming down and landing at a sheep carcass on the grass in amongst the bracken about 200m to the north of where we were standing. Now birders from the car park below were running up the track to join us because they could see that we were watching it. I could also see walkers on the hill above the bird but they were a reasonable distance and it didn't seem too worried about them.

In flight it wasn't as I remember bearded vultures in the Pyrenees, but that is partly because it's a 1st summer bird and partly because it's missing most of its tail. Adults have long and relatively pointed wings for a vulture, with a distinctive head-on profile and the long and impressive diamond shaped tail makes for a breathtaking sight in the high mountains. Young birds such as this bird in the Peak District have rounded wings but the tail, though more rounded than in the adult is still diamond shaped and impressive. Not on this bird though....

Video: Bearded vulture at a sheep carcass.

It remained by the carcass for about five minutes before taking off again and heading back towards Bamford Moor. I watched it for another 10 minutes or so as it drifted south and then decided to call it day. After hearing a succession of horror stories about the walk to the roost site I decided that this was about as good as it was likely to get without it taking over the rest of my day. I was pleased to have seen the bird so well, so easily and so quickly. I was home for 11.10am, three and a half hours after setting out and after a round walk of little more than half a mile. It was slightly surreal to then spend the afternoon doing the garden having spent the morning watching a bone crusher in the Peak District!

And you know what, it wasn't such a bad bird after all, in fact it was a pretty awesome experience seeing a bearded vulture in the Peak District and I was pleased that I'd made the effort because it would have been a shame to have missed out. If only it had a proper tail, if only somebody could find a feather.

Even without a feather there is still hope, because it turns out that although releases in the Alps are still on-going for various connectivity reasons, the population has been considered to be self sustaining since 2006. We'll just have to wait and see what the BOURC conclusion is, perhaps it will make Category A after all. You can read more about this bird and other vultures on the Vulture Conservation Foundation website.

There's some debate about whether or not the name lammergeier should be used or bearded vulture and I completely understand the argument. However at least in regards to this bird I ask the question, would a gamekeeper in the UK be more alarmed and therefore more likely to take action against a bird with a name which he doesn't understand or a bird which is called a vulture? My guess is he would be more concerned by the latter, but then again, this isn't about this one bird in the UK, it's about phasing out the use of the name everywhere.

It took me quite a while to see my first bearded vulture, until my 50th birthday in fact, when I saw several in the Ordessa National Park in the Spanish Pyrenees with Elaine.