GOT International

Rousing Send-off for Raptors

Unfazed by all  the attention...Buteo the Buzzard, now weighing a healthy 835g  (Picture: Abul Fazil)

A buzzard and two more kestrels were seen off last week, this time with a fair bit of fanfare at a World Bird Day celebration in a small Catalonian  town in the Valles Oriental (Eastern Valley) county.
Some 300 bird lovers, more than half of them children, turned up at the event at Can Font park in  Santa Eulalia de Ronçana (pop. 7000). For most of them, it was the first time seeing raptors up close. And the presence of a Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) heightened the excitement even for the seasoned birders among the spectators.  Forest rangers found the juvenile grounded in the vicinity of Barcelona airport some six months ago. It was injured, emaciated and its plumage was in a bad state. The buzzard was taken to the Torreferrussa Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre near Barcelona where it remained till fully recovered. 

       Video shows Parus bird-ringer Angel Fernandez setting the buzzard free, with Catalan 
Ornithological Institute staffer Anna Dalmau giving a running commentary.

Europe’s second most common raptor (Common Kestrels being the most common), the buzzard would relish its new habitat, which abounds not only with its favourite prey, rabbits, but also with voles, young birds and small reptiles.

Tailing the buzzard in its freedom flight were the pair of Common Kestrels (Falco tinnunculus). One arrived at the Torreferrussa centre four months ago as a weak and undernourished fledgling. Forest rangers had rescued it from a factory building in Alt Penedes, a county in Central Catalonia. The other, a juvenile, was brought in, suffering from an injured beak and deteriorating plumage, by a vet in Tarragona in South Catalonia three months ago. They weighed 165g and 185g respectively when they were pronounced fit for life in the wild last week.

Parus bird-ringer Frederic Sanchez (right) with the first Kestrel,  whille ornithologist Roger Sanmarti hangs  on to the other one – Picture by Abul Fazil

 

Video shows  Frederic  releasing his kestrel. Minutes later  GOT's Roger lets  the second go. 
Running commentary by ICO ornithologist Anna Dalmau

First stop -- the highest spot around.  No better place for Frederic’s kestrel to survey the scenario than  the topmost point on  this fir tree:  Picture by GOT birder Ernest Ramos

The raptors’ freedom flight was the highlight of a full morning’s programme which kicked off with a bird walk through the wooded banks of the River Tenes,  followed by several bird ringing sessions, a hands-on tutorial on nestbox construction, an exhibition of custom-built nestboxes,  and bird-table and kidcraft workshops --a complete birding experience organised by GOT with the collaboration of bird-banding group PARUS, the Consortium for the Defence of the Besos River Basin, the Natural Science Museum of county-capital Granollers, and the local Town Hall.

Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo), Ratonero común, aligot comú, Bussarde, Buse variable
Common Kestrel (Falco tinnunculus), Cernícalo Vulgar, Xoriguer comú, Turmfalke, Faucon crécerelle

Report by Abul Fazil