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Griffon Vulture Expand text

It was quite a surprise that it appeared in Poland and I could photograph it. It truly is beautiful and enormous. Unfortunately, on the first day, when I had the chance to take photos, there was a bad light and a dense fog. Luckily, it also appeared at the end of the day, in better lightning conditions. He is indeed huge. Its wingspan reaches up to 2.8 metres and his weight is 7 kilograms. So it is bigger than our biggest predator – White-tailed Eagle. It was interesting to watch those two species. Eagles, little desorientated by the freshly arrived “freak”, watched him closely. Soaked wet Eagle lowere its wings hoping to dry up. Meanwhile, Vulture spread them widely, as if he was flying, to increase the surface exposed to dry up. It was funny to watch the Eagle twist his neck to observe what the “novice” has come up with. Possibilities to observe the Vulture in Poland are very hard to realise. Griffon Vultures are accounted into migrating species and appear once in a couple of years, singularly. Their arrival is certainly an accident as they are mostly young individuals. Nonetheless, among all the birds which can be seen in Poland a Griffon Vulture is the biggest. Unfortunately, naturally it inhabits Near East, Anatolia, Arabian Peninsula, Iberian Peninsula and Balkans.
Last minute news – April 2013
As the occuring of this bird in Poland is very rare, not to mention suitable conditions to photograph it I thought its gallery on my site will not develop and be a close chapter. And such a surprise, and as usual an accident in nature photography. Being in Spain on a workshop I have ended the session with colony of bee-eaters and I had dozen or so kilometres to the next spot – of European Rollers. Driving along the road on a hot day, around 2 p.m. on the left side of the road in the distance I noticed strange gathering of brown spots on a nearby meadow. As the distance was getting smaller spots turned into clear silhouettes of Griffon Vultures and about couple of tens of them. Vultures are a quite common species in Spain, accounted for thousands of individuals, in colonies exceeding hundred of them. Braking car did not really scared them of, but they moved away a little and looked at me attentively. Lighting and the outdoor left much to wish for (and the transit drivers were not happy with the place I stopped in), but I could not resist taking couple of pictures enlaring my gallery.
Last minute news – Turkey 09/2014
This is the third my encounter with this bird. How short but very fruitful. Two griffon vultures came, and surrounded by 6 cinereous vultures sat only once on the right side of the lookout point. The angle of view they were noticeable from, however, was so wide that it was impossible to take pictures. In any case, it was not worth touching lenses or open them up, for a photo session would have been ended definitively on that day. It lasted like that for over an hour. The situation changed when the bearded vulture arrived, made several circles over our lookouts and then landed more than 100 meters away on the right side of the lookouts. Unfortunately, out of sight. I did not know what attracted its attention so that it had to land away from the buffet which was prepared in front of our lenses. But the vultures noticed that and all the eight of them, one after another took their wings off for the flight and landed in a place where the bearded vulture landed. That one flight and the right choice of the bird made it possible to take a series of photos of the griffon vulture in flight. The best pictures of this bird that I managed to take ever. What is more it was accompanied by a raven, and it was not just any raven. Among hundreds of ravens that we could watch from our lookouts, there was distinctive one that had one completely white feather and that was this raven which escorted my griffon vulture during the flight in front of the lookouts. When they were flying I was able to take a few pictures all of which I published, and I rebuilt the gallery.
Last minute news – 06/2016 - Mongolia
At last I had a chance to encounter this vulture. As I wrote about encounters with vultures in Mongolia (cinereous vulture and Himalayan vulture), we encountered Griffon vultures less often. The greater joy, when suddenly three large Himalayan vultures and two cinereous vultures appeared. It is quite funny how they slowly approach the carrion. The bird stepped from one leg to the other, after which it made a few leaps or a short flight and appeared near the carrion. It did it only in the situation when it decided that it was safe. In other situations, when it sensed some danger, it would sit down on a rock or the ground, at a several hundred meter distance from the carrion and observe before taking the final decision whether to approach the meal or fly away. It takes a lot of patience to observe a bird that looks like a sculpture for several hours and wait, wait, wait…
Last minute news – 09/2017
The gallery is in a process of improving. My fifth encounter with the griffon vulture in Spain resulted in interesting dynamic shots, which replaced the previous static ones. The number of vultures that appeared after a bait was laid exceeded all our expectations. However, such a great number of birds that may be desirable when you are watching, turned out to be an obstacle in taking good pictures. The vultures were greedy for food and after an hour and a half there left nothing for them to eat, so they flew away. I had several opportunities to shoot them, also while taking photos of the golden eagle. This time a griffon vulture and an eagle were recorded. Birds waiting for the eagle to leave something after its meal gathered on a small tree. And as there was not enough space for them all, the scramble to get the place was accompanied by the noise that I managed to record. So I have taken many more interesting photos than ever before, so there have been radical changes in the gallery and the griffon vulture goes to the news.

Link to the slide show - Vultures - click here