White-backed Vulture Twitch , Galicia

This was surely the most high-tech twitch I've ever done. 

A White-backed Vulture had been satellite tagged in Morrocco and was tracked across the Iberian Peninsula until it settled in the Northern Spain region. The bird is covering a huge area daily and can roost at different sites over hundreds of kilometers. The GPS location of the bird is unfortunately guarded to only a few select Iberian birders but fortunately we had a friend on the inside who provided us with the GPS data.

On Wednesday we knew it had been south of Mondonedo so on the way to the Kelp Gull we had a look for it. However in sunny conditins and with Griffon Vultures soaring in the distance the bird could have been a long way from our latest GPS update. We failed to locate the bird that day.

On Friday we decided on a new strategy, we arranged for the GPS location to be sent to us at around 6pm when we noticed the other local vultures were no longer flying and presumably had gone to roost for the night. We hoped we could find the bird at roost and if not would know where to wait the following morning for it to start flying as the heat of the day got up. 

So at around 5.30pm on Friday we had a mid-afternoon GPS location update so went to the location only to find a well picked carcass and no vultures. At around 6.30pm we received the roost site GPS location so headed over there only to arrive in thick fog. Markku and Petri (Corvo birders) were in Spain too so we arranged to meet there but alas indeed there was hardly any visibility.   

We were able to work out the precise spot of the GPS location in the Pine wood and indeed the shape of a vulture was barely visible though the fog. Closer to the road there were some Griffon Vultures roosting in slightly better visibility. 

We tried White-backed Vulture calls to get the bird to fly closer, Markku went into the wood to try and get closer and we waited until dusk in the hope the fog would lift. We also got the thermal camera out to see more details. Despite having telescopes, image stabilising optics, playback audio, thermal imaging, 600mm DSLR lenses and a satellite (!)- nothing worked in getting any better views . 

The next morning we arrived for plan B, waiting for it to fly up but the fog was even worse. There was a 2 minute easing of the fog at one point and Vincent got a photo that shows the structure better and critically seems to show the satellite tag on the back!

With a plane to catch home we had to leave before the fog cleared so all we had seen was a barely visible vulture shape. A dodgy tick but in technolgoy we trust! 

A WP tick but not a year tick as had them in Ghana earlier in the year. Did get quite a few year ticks in Spain so now on 929 for the year and what with the 3 WP ticks now on 748 for the WP (71 ranking). 

What with the Kelp Gull, two African vagrants in a week in Northen Spain- unexpected stranger things! 

Griffon Vulture (left) and White-backed Vulture (right) in the fog (Vincent Legrand). GPS box visible on it's back was the best identification feature! Also structure and size differences. 

This was as good as the views got

The GPS maps we had to work with 

Showing a bit better at the same site were these Autumn Lady's Tresses orchids (lifer)