On our walk yesterday to nearby Ginole, we stopped to pick cherries and play frisbee near where a bird-watcher was setting up his telescope and training it on the magnificent cliffs. I cautiously approached him, in the hope of looking through his telescope. He seemed friendly enough, but insisted that I must speak French, even though he apparently could speak good English. I was in no position to challenge that, since I was hoping for a favour from him. D’accord. Comment vous regardez? (His answer was incomprehensible to me, but I guessed he said something about watching birds up on the cliff.) C’est possible pour moi regarder les birds via ton telescope? He then explained in English that I should look in the middle of the view and I would see one of 20 griffon vulture nests up there. I stared through the scope at the cliff and saw nothing for a while. Then I saw something move. It was the long neck and head of the vulture. There were others soaring high above the cliffs, but they were so far off I could only take his word for it that they were vultures. He said they weigh 10 kilograms and have a wingspan of nearly three metres.

Tom also had a look through the telescope and claimed to have seen the birds.

If you are all squeamish then don’t read this story about the vultures.