Hundreds of friends and four Griffon Vultures attended the Second National Vulture Festival , held in Sliven on October 14th 2011 [ 2011-10-16 ]
The Second National Vulture Festival, organized within the Vultures Return in Bulgaria LIFE08 NAT/BG/278 Project and supported by ContourGlobal Maritsa Iztok 3 raised huge interest.
The awareness campaign gathered students from various ages from six schools and kindergartens from Sliven, Roza and Drazhevo, many parents, passers-by and vulture-lovers from all over the country. Inspired by the realistic dummies, the children drew and coloured vultures, sang and danced to celebrate the return of these magnificent birds to Sliven.
Everybody learnt why vultures are useful and interesting birds, where they live, what they feed on and what adventures they have to go through, when shipped and released within the Vultures Return in Bulgaria Project.
Mr. Krapp – deputy head of the mission at the German Embassy; Mrs. Bus – deputy-head of the mission at the Dutch Embassy and Mr. Roman Horzsky – Director of Zoo Zlin were among the official guests, yet without doubt, the most exciting visitors were the four Griffon Vultures, which soared over the central square of Sliven. Thus, for a first time for over fifty years, the citizens of Sliven had the chance to see not only dummies and pictures, but observe the real results of our nature conservation efforts.
Some 50 kids, our hosts from the Sinite kamani Nature Park and the official guests all joined us for the second part of the Festival, held at the vulture adaptation aviary in the park. Our team tagged a newly arrived Griffon Vulture, granted by the Zlin Zoo, Czech Republic, in front of the kids gathered there. The bird, despite being remarkably big, is barely seven months old and will remain in the spacious aviary in the company of the other vultures for at least half a year. She will not be alone, her brother and sister, earlier granted by Zlin Zoo, are also here, yet already released into the wild.
The Vanchevs Family and representatives of ContourGlobal Maritsa Iztok 3 also attended the event as official adopters who secured the purchasing of two special GPS/GSM transmitters to enable us track two Griffon Vultures after their release. The adopters were introduced to “their” birds while our team fitted the purchased transmitters and released them.
Therefore, on October 14th, 2011, two new birds flew in the skies of Sinite kamani for a first time – Berkley – a three-year old Spanish male (K22), named by the Vanchevs Family and Maritsa – also a three-year old female of Spanish origin (K1V), adopted by ContourGlobal Maritsa Iztok 3.
The very cherry of the cake was the welcoming party of eight Griffon Vultures we found on the feeding site at the aviary. Among them was a vulture with a yellow tag “I”, which is seen here for a very first time. We are now trying to identify the unknown guest.
All these – the interest and support of the people, the presence and magnificent flight of the birds, are the greatest prize for us, the team and all our friends, working on the vultures return in Bulgaria.
We are very grateful to the official guests, all volunteers and the team of the Sinite kamani NP for their support!
For more information, please contact:
Elena Kmetova- project manager – ekmetova@greenbalkans.org; +359 885219557
The preparation of the info stand
Our first visitors
We LOVE vultures!
The info stand
The moment the four vultures appeared in the sky!
Kids gather...
to learn more about vultures!
In preparation of the programme...
...we are colouring vultures...
...observing vultures...
...learn about vultures...
...or just LIKING them!
Our guests from the Dutch and German Embassies
Addressed our team and guests
And were then greeted by the kids
In the Sinite kamani NP, at the vulture aviary
Explaining what exactly are we going to do
Our hosts from the Sinite kamani NP
The marking of the new bird arrived from the Czech Republic
...and the fitting of the GPS transmitter onto Maritsa
Our proud adopters - the Vanchevs family with Berkley and ContourGlobal Maritsa Iztok 3 with Maritsa
...the birds, which expected the newcomers out...
Together with the mysterious guest from abroad
Have a good flight, Maritsa!
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