On the 11th and 12th of July 2011 took place another scavenger bird count within the scope of the project. This count had the participation of 3 volunteers, Esmeralda Pereira, Marta Acácio and Tiago Baptista, whom we would like to thank for their help in the field. The project technicians David Delgado, Eduardo Santos, Nuno Curado and Pedro Lourenço also participated in this count.
On the first day we counted birds in the Mourão/Moura/Barrancos SPA and in the second we counted birds in the Vale do Guadiana SPA, and during the count we noted not only scavenger birds, but also other raptors, large soaring birds and steppeland birds. During the two days of field work we counted 12-15 black vultures Aegypius monachus, most of which (8-9) in the Mourão/Moura/Barrancos SPA. Overall, we detected 15 raptor species, the most abundant being the gryphon vulture Gyps fulvus (380-510 individuals), followed by the black kite Milvus migrans (18-25 inds.), the short-toed eagle Circaetus gallicus (13-18 inds.) and the common kestrel Falco tinnunculus (11-14 inds.). Among the other species we noted the presence of golden eagle Aquila chrysaetus and Iberian imperial eagle Aquila adalbertii, and also the sighting of 3 peregrine falcons Falco peregrinus, a species which had rarely been observed so far in these counts.
We also counted 2 black storks Ciconia nigra, 2 black-bellied sandgrouse Pterocles orientalis and 1 raven Corvus corax.
The next counts will take place in October, and we would very much welcome any volunteers who would be willing to help! If you are interested please contact the project technician Pedro Lourenço through the following email: plourenco@ceai.pt
