BEARDED VULTURE

 17-08-2020 Black Tor, Crowden

After leaving the Howden area the Bearded Vulture went AWOL for a while before turning up on the Woodhead Pass at Crowden. The bird had roosted occasionally at Black Tor which was accessible from the Pennine Way. My first visit was unsuccessful as we only saw the bird at a huge distance - it had roosted to the south of Crowden Reservoir the previous night and stayed away from the Crowden Valley.

On my second visit I knew the bird had roosted at Black Tor and I arrived just after dawn to find one other birder friend (Craig Bell) there. Craig located the bird at roost. Whilst suffering midges really badly I managed to get another few clips of decent video and some images as the bird woke up, preened and eventually flew off, briefly landing near by and wing stretching before leaving the area.