Griffon Vulture Webcam in Israel

[Marbzy]

16:43 Are you sure my help is not needed?


16:43 A90 abandons his/her supper:


16:44 Here comes Mom for the fourth time!

[Marbzy]

16:45 What a reunion! For a few moments they dine together:


16:46 A90 keeps vocalising in that disctinctive manner of his/hers, though with much less intensity than, say, a month ago:

[Marbzy]

16:46 A moment to cherish:


16:46 2E5 has other ideas - Mom escapes immediately:


16:46 A90 follows a few seconds later:

[Marbzy]

16:47 T65 is casting a spell:


16:47 T93 is next in the queue:


16:50 T65 approaches the meat tentatively:

[Marbzy]

16:50 A faithful servant:


16:51 The eagle has come back:


16:52 T65 returns to tear off a morsel:

[Marbzy]

16:52 T60 tries to do the same:


16:52 T63 now - it's the sixties left, right and centre:


16:53 T93 breaks the pattern:

[Marbzy]

16:55 It's the eagle's turn at last:


16:57 The eagle is off:


16:57 And so are the griffons:

[Marbzy]

16:59 2E5 is asking for trouble:


17:05 It's over for the day:


17:09 Dad the Rock:

[Marbzy]

17:11 IR Dad:


17:36 He's sleepy:


17:57 Sleep tight!

[Marbzy]

About three hours to go:


About two hours:


Under one hour:

[Marbzy]

Time is running out for us.

You have stolen our habitat, claimed our foraging grounds and reduced our sources of food, pushing us further and further south. We can't go back to our former breeding territories e.g. in the Carpathian mountains.

You have shot at us, wounding, injuring and killing many of us. Because you think we steal your lambs or even children. Because you think we kill "your" animals. Because we are (mostly) large birds. Or for no reason at all. See https://www.4vultures.org/poaching-in-n ... condition/, see https://www.4vultures.org/poacher-shot- ... -bulgaria/, https://www.4vultures.org/bearded-vultu ... nd-killed/, etc. You have used lead shot and ammunition to kill others and thus poison our food: https://www.4vultures.org/study-high-le ... rs-europe/, https://www.4vultures.org/2019/05/23/gr ... poisoning/, etc.

You have constructed power lines. They are difficult to see. We fly into them. We are killed upon impact, like our sister K70 and her companion J10; many of us are electrocuted: https://www.4vultures.org/electrocution ... eon-spain/.

You have poisoned "your" livestock - our food by using diclofenac, aceclofenac, nimesulide, ketoprofen, flunixin and other NSAIDs to treat the animals. You have condemned millions of our brothers and sisters to unspeakable torture and ultimately death. You have known about the deadly impact of diclofenac for 15 years now, but you keep using it even though its veterinary use has been banned. You've found ways around the bans to save a few cents. See: https://india.mongabay.com/2018/02/decl ... th-crisis/.

You have laced our food with toxic chemicals aimed at mammalian predators: https://www.4vultures.org/2019/05/17/ma ... n-heights/. You have laced our food with toxic chemicals aimed specifically at us: https://www.4vultures.org/guinea-bissau ... stigation/.

You have deliberately poisoned carcasses so that we are unable to soar and thus alert your conspecifics employed in law enforcement to your poaching activities. See e.g. http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/fa ... canus/text.

You have trapped us, you have killed us, you have stripped and severed our bodies to make money from our brains and body parts. Because you believe they will allow you to see into the future. See e.g. http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/fa ... talis/text.

Most of us are facing extinction in the next 20 years. This is the sunset of our age, soon to be followed by the darkest of nights.

We are fighting a losing battle. There will be no winners (except perhaps for feral dogs) when we have lost it.

[Marbzy]

Vulture conservation work is being done around the world. Here, we were able to watch three griffon vultures hatch, grow, fledge and start to lead an independent life. This was made possible by two specific conservation projects – the Israeli Raptor Nest Cam project and a joint effort of the Charter Group of Wildlife Ecology and the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. Not every project is able to gain comparable publicity. Low profile conservation projects may well be operated near you, including in countries where vultures are not even resident (anymore).

To find out about local vulture conservation projects, it may be a good idea to start from the general and work your way gradually down to the particular. Here are three gateways to information on Old World vultures:
Asia: https://save-vultures.org
Africa: https://www.birdlife.org/african-vultures
Europe (and beyond): https://www.4vultures.org

An alternative approach might consist in finding out if your local zoo is party to a vulture conservation programme. Breeding vultures and raising vulture chicks in captivity is hard and ungrateful graft. It is carried out behind the scenes and is hardly ever appreciated. Success is rare, and yet the devotion of the people involved is genuine. The fate of birds kept in zoological gardens may not be enviable (though usually much better than it would be if they were to be restored to life in the wild and often much better to what it was before they were placed in a zoo), but each reintroduction success story justifies the enterprise.

I am not going to finish this coverage with an exhortation to donate to one vulture conservation project or another. Supporting such a project financially may not even be the best thing to do. If you have come with me to this point, you will know that there are many other ways to help vultures survive. I suppose that LK members and followers are generally people who take no convincing that all help begins with education. I will therefore conclude my work (?) here with a humble request that you raise awareness – among your families and, in particular, the youngest generation – of the invaluable clean-up services that vultures contribute to the ecosystem (and not just to us – we’re not that special, are we?), that you challenge the negative stereotypes about these magnificent birds, and that you appreciate them for what they are - they can be very likeable at closer inspection.

Let's give hope a chance.

[Abigyl]

DECEMBER 4th



It's still interesting to watch the northern nest.

At 16:42 the kid was sitting on mom's veranda... while parents were mating on the nest

[Marbzy]

Hello!

I have been following the nest just as closely as I had before I stopped posting, so I feel justified in doing some wet-blanket stuff: the juvenile that watched on as the parents mated today from 16:41:17 till 16:42:06 is not their foster chick.

The foster chick come fledgeling wears blue band no. H17 and white wing tag no. A90. The juvenile who has been spending a lot of time next to the nest (and given Dad a scare a few times, causing the aged griffon to spend a few nights away from the nest in the last two-three weeks) wears yellow band no. C58 and white wing tag no. A60. The youngster has been staying at the Hai-Bar rehab centre for several weeks now (s/he was first identified here on 16 October) and appears to enjoys the 20-year-olds' company. The feeling is not always mutual: A60 has been attacked by the female a few times, and even the male is now able to give A60 a pasting, especially in the wake of a hormone surge that accompanies mating.

A90 has not been seen around much, which may just be due to the fact that the feeding station camera has been broken down for about two weeks now.

Yours vulturously,
M

[Polly]

Marbzy, it's super nice to read a few words from you again. I also couldn't imagine that you could actually let go of this nest. Nice to assume that you are fine.
In the animal world, the line between parental home and independence is narrower than with us humans. Of course ... if we humans were to give birth to babies every year, we would have to chase away our elders very early. Where else would the power and space come from. So the animal world sometimes seems cruel to little ones. But the strong ones make it.
Will you keep reporting to us Marbzy?

[Abigyl]

2021 SEASON

Marzby! Great news!

Northern nest: Mom had an EGG !! FEBRUARY 11th

[Marbzy]

Hello, Abigyl and all!

There are now (at least) two Griffon Vulture eggs being incubated in the nests of Israel.

First, J35, T99's new mate, laid an egg in the afternoon of 10 February:


T99, as you might remember, managed to raise a nestling last year, aided by a drone after his mate had fatally collided with a power line.

[continued below]

[Marbzy]

Then, less than 26 hours later, the disabled female in the Hai-Bar Reserve laid her egg. You may view the video of the final minutes of laying here:
.

Mind you, make sure you've turned the sound on!

[continued below]

[Marbzy]

The egg laid by the disabled female was then collected by Israel Nature and Parks Authority on 12 February and replaced with a dummy egg:



The "real" egg is now being incubated artificially to make sure that it is safe from the elements, predation and accidental damage.

Assuming the two eggs are fertile, it will be interesting to see whose chick hatches first!

If you've been following Griffon Vulture news closely, you might be aware that A90, the nestling raised by the disabled pair last season, was saved from drowning in the Mediterranean on 10 December 2020. Thankfully, the youngster did not sustain any serious injuries and is now out of rehab - the bird was released back into nature only last week. Who knows, perhaps we will soon be watching the juvenile back at the Hai-Bar Feeding Station...

[Polly]

Marbzy, nice to read you!

no, at least I didn't know anything about the chick's difficult situation.

Was the egg replaced by a dummy last season? I don't remember ...
But is it brought back? Will it be?

yes, I just found the answer indirectly in your post. Excuse me...