Dear Editor,
I would like to correct facts about your article on the black vultures (last week’s edition).
I took a picture of a black vulture in 2009 between Mértola and Castro Verde on the N123. We have seen black vultures every year since in the same area. Last year we saw four with a flock of about 20 Griffin vultures on a carcass in a field close to the N123.
Regarding the article about the shot Bonelli’s eagle, I was told that an Imperial eagle was shot dead by hunters (so called sportsmen) close to Mértola recently. As they too are endangered, is it not time stronger action is taken to catch the culprits? If, as they claim, they are sportsmen, someone must know who was responsible (I’m sure they would have bragged about it) or are all Portuguese indifferent to the wonderful flora and fauna they have in this beautiful country?
Brian Eglington, by email
Editor’s note: The article on the black vultures referred to the first sighting of these birds nesting in southern Portugal in 40 years, according to conservationists from Flora and Fauna International.
