Dutch vultures and eagles

[Alex Lees]

The Eurasian Griffon Vulture (http://www.dutchbirding.nl/pics/pictures.php?page=1&id=5519)present at Slootdorp in the Netherlands was found dead on the 13th July. It was ringed as a first year in Palencia, Spain on the 27th November 2006 - a minimum linear distance of 1400km (actual distance travelled likely considerably greater). To put that in perspective it is only 890km from Palencia to Scilly!

Arguably more exciting is the report of a Spanish Imperial Eagle, identified from photos from the Netherlands last year, anyone know any more? Formerly thought to be highly sedentary, juveniles have recently been recorded wintering south as far as Senegal.

Alex

[Stephen Menzie]

Arguably more exciting is the report of a Spanish Imperial Eagle, identified from photos from the Netherlands last year, anyone know any more?

Pics of the bird are here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/Schreeuwarend%20Loozerheide%20070506-1.jpg), here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/Schreeuwarend%20Loozerheide%20070506-2.jpg), here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/Schreeuwarend%20Loozerheide%20070506-3.jpg) & here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/bastaardarend4a_6mei2007_RWeenink.JPG) (taken from this website (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/) & labled as possible Lesser Spotted Eagle). Not sure how the re-identification came about, though I did hear Forsman was involved in sorting it.

Stephen

[Alex Lees]

Pics of the bird are here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/Schreeuwarend%20Loozerheide%20070506-1.jpg), here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/Schreeuwarend%20Loozerheide%20070506-2.jpg), here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/Schreeuwarend%20Loozerheide%20070506-3.jpg) & here (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/Multimedia/bastaardarend4a_6mei2007_RWeenink.JPG) (taken from this website (http://www.vogelsindekempen.nl/) & labled as possible Lesser Spotted Eagle). Not sure how the re-identification came about, though I did hear Forsman was involved in sorting it.

Stephen

cheers Stephen, these rarely observed examples of wandering juveniles (of both Imperial Eagle taxa) corroborate the molecular data (Martínez-Cruz & Godoy 2007 (http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/7/170)) which indicated continued genetic mixing between the two recently-diverged (allo)species:

'Although the asymmetric gene flow pattern might still indicate some level of reproductive incompatibility, full reproductive isolation is contradicted by our observations of gene flow. Based on the scarcity of diagnostic characters (such as the A. heliaca plumages in both adults and juveniles occurring in the A. adalberti population; Spanish Ministry of Environment, unpublished data) and the low level of morphological, ecological or behavioural divergence, these taxa might be conservatively classified as allospecies based upon the criteria of Helbig et al.'

Alex