From 13 July to 18 August 2000, an immature Eurasian Black Vulture Aegypius monachus was seen at various coastal sites. On 5 and 12 Augustus the bird was seen on Vlieland.
The red arrows indicates the movement of the bird from 13 July till 18 August 2000. The bird is considered a second calendar-year based on head pattern, stage of moult and pointed, dark scapulars, although a third calendar-year can not fully be excluded.
The extensive wear of the bird's plumage is not necessarily considered indicative of captive origin as it is stated that wild birds occur with similarly bad plumage conditions. Also the behaviour of the bird seemed to indicate a wild origin. This is the second record for the Netherlands. The first was a female shot at Beneden-Leeuwen, Gelderland, on 12 October 1948.
There is one record of a proven escape (wearing leather straps) in April 1978.
And there was Carmen. This Eurasian Black Vulture Aegypius monachus discovered in Beers, Cuijk, Noord-Brabant on 16 and 17 March and relocated in the Oostvaardersplassen, Almere/Lelystad from 20 March to 15 August. (This bird is not seen on Vlieland).
The bird was colour-ringed on the right leg (blue ring with white inscription 'CX') and wore an aluminium ring on the left leg. Four primaries and two secondaries in the left wing were bleached and it had a radio transmitter antenna in its tail. The bird stayed in at the Oostvaardersplassen, Flevoland, from 20 March 2005 till 15 August. On that day the bird was killed after a collision with a train. The corpse was taken to the National Museum of Natural History/ Naturalis at Leiden, Zuid-Holland.
The bird was traced as 'Carmen', a weakened, poisoned adult female brought into care in Extremadura, Spain, on 2 May 2003, taken to Mallorca, Spain, after recovery on 15 July 2003, and brought to Les Baronnies, Drôme, France (the second location in France where a reintroduction project for this species is operating) on 7 April 2004 with nine other Eurasian Black Vultures. It was released at Les Baronnies on 2 February 2005 and last seen in mid-February. The distance between Extremadura and Les Baronnies is c 1000 km; the flight distance from the re-introduction site to Beers in the Netherlands is c 800 km. The CDNA decided that its occurrence after a translocation of c 1000 km (from central Spain to southern France) can no longer be considered ‘natural’;
