Kiersten's Blog

A close encounter of the Lammergeier kind

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:00:36 +0100

We had a day out in the snow on Friday testing some new crampons. To top off an already great day on our drive back down the mountain I noticed an enormous bird flying up from below us. In my head I was struggling to identify it, I thought too early for Griffon vultures, also didn't look like a flying barn door, it was wrong for a Golden eagle, then I noticed the tail, without doubt it was a Bearded vulture, also known as a Lammergeier, and it was heading straight towards us.

Initially I was confused because I am not used to seeing these birds low down, we were at 1330m, I associate them with the high mountains, but of course they are under snow at the moment, so I guess it's looking for food lower down. I shouted for Richard to stop, threw off my seatbelt, threw off the lenscap and shot out the car, snapped a few pictures and enjoyed being in the presence of this special bird. I'm still on a buzz 3 days later. This particular bird had a tracker on it, it would be interesting to find out where it had come from. Having looked at the pictures showing the different age plumage on the The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture (FCQ), link below, I reckon this bird to be a subadult of 4-6 years old, please correct me if I am wrong.

A little bit of information about this vulture if you don't already know :-
It's Europe's rarest vulture. They do not hunt live prey. About 85 to 90% of their food are bones. If the bones are too big to swallow they take the bone up high and drop it onto rocks to smash it into smaller pieces.

In Andalucia there has been a reintroduction programme which started in 1996. The centre is in a nearby mountain range and those birds have been visiting the Sierra Nevada regularly until some eventually stayed to make this mountain range it's home. Also in 2024 the Sierra Nevada was chosen as a release site for the reintroduction programme, which you can read more of here. We have been lucky to see the birds on most of our trips into the Sierra Nevada mountains but this was my first up close encounter, I hope for many more.

Useful links

Vulture Conservation Foundation has plenty of information about this vulture and the other vulture species.
A live webcam from a Bearded vulture nest.
The Foundation for the conservation of the Bearded vulture website has a lot of useful information about the Bearded vulture.

Loma Pua, Pico Sabinar & Rio Veleta

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:21:08 +0200

We had a massive day in the mountains yesterday, it was fantastic, so hard, but it was so worth the effort. Into an area I, and everyone else with us, had never been to before. The high Sierra Nevada mountains can be quite savage in their beauty and it's always amazing to me that anything can survive up there. Beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, forms and colours. Some have petals, some are made of rock, some have feathers and some have fur, but they all have their place in this unique landscape. Thanks husband for another great and well needed day out in the mountains.
To see more pictures from the day have a look here at this link.

Here are some of things I saw.

Possibly my favourite flower in these mountains Sempervivum minutum.

Probably Gentiana pneumonanthe subsp. depressa.

A sleepy Ibex.

The tiny Gentianella tenella.

The only Gentiana sierrae seen all day.

A few of these little guys still hanging on Gentiana boryi.

We saw a few Griffon vultures in the morning. But more exciting was the sight of a pair of Bearded vulture.

Campanula always up for a photo.

"Boo" mobile shot.

Vasar de Mulhacen

Mon, 12 Jul 2021 15:32:14 +0200

The national park bus dropped us off, it was nice to feel the cooler mountain air. The clouds enveloped us on and off. A big boom of thunder decided where we would spend the night. Only a drop or two of rain fell on us, we were lucky the storm stayed to the north of us. The wind picked up, we hunkered down in our sleeping bags and awoke in the early hours to a brilliant starry sky until the full moon arrived. An early start was needed because we couldn't get to our planned bivvy site due to the storm. The next day was cloudless and perfect walking conditions. We had a brilliant two days.

It was quite humid up there which gave us some great entertainment from the clouds rolling in and out.

Veleta in the background came into view through a window in the clouds.

Mulhacen early the next morning.

Enjoying sunrise looking towards Laguna de la Mosca and Alcazaba.

We enjoyed a full moon, there was little need for head torches.

That patch of snow was solid ice, that will no doubt stay there all year.

Heading down into Siete Lagunas. There was cloud on the Mediterranean sea over Almeria way.

And still down we go.

Taking a break having steeply climbed back out from Siete Lagunas. We came from somewhere over Alistairs shoulder.

Waiting for our pick up and thankful that we able to catch the National Park bus rather than walk the long hot road back to the cars.

Below are some of the flora and fauna we saw during the trip.

A Campanula flower standing tall.

Timarcha a type of leaf beetle. There are 5 that live in the Sierra Nevada and only 3 that live above 2000m. This was one was tootling along at 3100m!

A beautiful curious Ibex. Actually I think she was wanting food!

The ever present Alpine Accentor with it's young.

Our camp was visited by this beautiful small fox. She was even more curious.

She is so different to the skinny bigger foxes we get down here. Her coat was beautiful. She didn't give us any problems. She popped her head under Alistair's tarpaulin to say hi during the night but went on her way afterwards.

I was very happy to come across this flower, Gentiana boryi. I'm pretty sure I've seen it before but didn't realise it was from the Gentian family. It's classified as vulnerable.

Plantago nivalis (known locally as the snow star) It is endemic to these mountains and a symbol of the Sierra Nevada. It has the legend of being the flower of eternal love!

Baetica ustulata Endemic to the Sierra Nevada

Eumigus rubioi is an endemic wingless grasshopper with her boyfriend, yep he's the one on her back!

Rita brought home a sachet of poison

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 14:31:38 +0200

Why do people use poison 😡 First day back at home after our Gibraltar trip and the morning has been spent at the vets with Rita. After this mornings walk, she proudly presented us with this bag of poison. We had no idea how much she had eaten, if any, but having lost a cat (Taz) and dog (Tapa) to poison before there was no messing around.

Straight to the vets we went, injections, vomiting, lots and lots of vomiting and a few hours later she is back home and resting. She appears none the worse for ordeal. The poison is not ours (we don't use it), she must have picked it up on our walk and neither of us noticed.

Pissed off is an understatement of how I feel right now 🤬

JJ (Juan Jabali)

Sat, 24 Feb 2018 21:55:08 +0100

To the bastard who killed my JJ, hacked his head off to take home as a trophy, and left his body to rot. I hope you die a slow and painful death. You are not welcome on my land or any of my neighbours land. The last time I saw JJ was on 5th August, I knew something was wrong because he usually visits every day during the summer. I found his body on Sunday very decomposed. Seprona have been made aware and have been to visit the area, once again it seems snares were used.

I will spare you the photos and put up the last photo I have of JJ. #RIPJJ