On the 13^th of December and on the 24^th of January took place the third scavenger bird counts of the project. The two counts, one in each of the SPAs within the project implementation area, should have been made in consecutive days, but the severe weather conditions forced us to delay the count at the Vale do Guadiana SPA for over a month. These counts had the participation of 6 volunteers, Beatriz Rodrigues, Hugo Sampaio, Inês Rodrigues, Nuno Faria, Tiago Baptista and Tiago Ferro, whom we would like to thank for their help. The project technicians Alfonso Godino, David Delgado, Estrela Matilde and Pedro Lourenço also participated in these counts.
During field work we counted not only scavenger birds, but also other bird species representative of the local avifauna. On the course of the two days we detected 4-5 black vultures Aegypius monachus, most of which (3-4 individuals) at the Mourão/Moura/Barrancos SPA and only 1 at the Vale do Guadiana SPA. Overall we identified 10 species of raptors, the most abundant being the gryphon vulture Gyps fulvus (250-280 individuals), followed by the red kite Milvus milvus (22-26 inds.) and the common buzzard Buteo buteo (12-14 inds.). Among the other species, we noted of the presence of golden eagles Aquila chrysaetus and Bonneli’s eagles Aquila fasciata.
We also counted nearly 300 cranes Grus grus, 16 little bustards Tetrax tetrax and 12 ravens Corvus corax.

The next counts will take place in March, 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.