For International Vulture Awareness Day, our Education Officer wanted to share some stories about Vultures in the UK.
The most recent story comes from 2020, when Bearded Vulture Vigo spent four months touring the East of England. Thanks to a couple of dropped feathers, geneticists from the Vulture Conservation Foundation were able to share her story, discovering that she was actually named “Flysch” and had hatched in July 2019 in the north west Alps of France, somewhere between Geneva and Mont Blanc. Her story was more remarkable because her father was a bird hatched in that same region, while her mother was a captive reared bird from a Swiss Zoo, and was released in 2006 in north east Italy!
Vigo spent some time in the Peak District. Photo by Indy Greene
Susan confesses “I am not a twitcher, but Vigo was such an impressive bird, I did venture out a couple of times in an attempt to catch a glimpse. On both occasions, we arrived at her last known site just having missed her, and spent a few hours driving around the Cambridgeshire/ Lincolnshire Fens staring at every large bird in the sky. We were not successful.”
Despite Susan "dipping” the Vulture, many others got very close views! Photo by Philip Todd.
Vigo was only the second Bearded Vulture to be seen in the UK, the first making an appearance in 2016. This bird was first spotted in Gwent, near the Severn Crossing Bridge, before being seeing across Dartmoor and Cornwall a few days later. The identity of this young bird was unknown, but it will have been a wild-hatched bird, likely from the Pyrenees or Alps.
Bearded Vulture coming into land. Photo by University of Cape Town.
Vultures have long being kept as “pets” or curiosities by the upper classes in society, and when Susan was informed of an interesting story by colleague Catherine, she decided to look into this further.
John Henry Gurney was a Quaker banker based in Norwich in the mid-late 19th-century. The family were great philanthropists, funding many charitable, artistic, architectural and commercial innovations throughout the city. The Gurney men were all keen ornithologists, artists and musicians who between them wrote many books about birds and the natural world. John Henry has an impressive collection of birds of prey at his home in Catton, including the infamous Mrs Stockings, a Lappet Faced Vulture so named because of her white legs. Apparently, Mrs. Stockings was known to peck the "petticoats and gaiters" of Gurney’s society friends, but they all loved her for it!! She would also terrorise the children by chasing them around the yard!
Extract from “Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists Society, 1890-91”
Around the same time, Lord Lilford Thomas Littleton, 4th Baron of Lilford Hall in Northamptonshire had also amassed a large collection of birds, which he kept in aviaries within the grounds of the estate. Included in his collection were two free-flying Bearded Vultures, which he must have collected on his extensive travels around the Mediterranean.
Interestingly, Lord Lilford is also responsible for the introduction of Little Owls into the UK.