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.

BEARDED VULTURE

14-07-2020 & 18-07-2020 Howden Moors

I made another three trips up to Howden Moor, one afternoon (unsuccessful) and two early morning to catch the bird at roost. It was the 14th & 18th July when I managed to get some more images and some video as well. It was good to take a friend (Kim) up to see this magnificent bird and it didn't disappoint. I was disappointed with my photography but I think the video holds up pretty well.

14-07-2020

18-07-2020

BEARDED VULTURE

Howden Moor  11-07-2020

A long walk up Dukes Road onto Howden Moors took an hour at pace to reach the roosting crag of this stunning bird which had been in the Derbyshire / Yorkshire moorland for a few days. I set off at 4.30am carrying camera, binoculars, water but no tripod due to weight.

Arriving at 5.30am and walking across awful terrain to get to the viewpoint for the last km - a shout from a friend, (Tom Hines)......."it's flown down the valley", before I had seen it was gutting! We quickly joined the group who were at the viewpoint and luckily the bird reappeared gaining height on the breeze and then tracked the moorland up to a large outcrop of rocks mobbed by a Hobby at one point.

The bird gradually made its way back and landed on the roosting cliff face allowing me quite a few shots. I used my 1DXmkii with 2 x TC and the 500mm lens. Light was difficult and a lot of the shots suffered from high ISO as the bird was on a fairly dark cliff face at distance. Thankfully Tom let me use his tripod to get a little stability. All the other shots were hand held. A Kestrel mobbed the bird at one point.

Some time after a jogger ran up the east side on the ridge and the bird flew off again. I managed to grab a few flight images as it went and then a few final shots as it headed north up the Howden Ridge (These were probably the best shots of the day in good light - although distant).

A memorable experience and nice to see a few familiar faces again during this difficult time in the world.