In the sky between the crags and the clouds, a powerful pair of wings rides the warm updrafts.

Marin Kurtev directs our gaze. To the layperson’s eye, all that is clear is that gliding far above is a bird of some considerable power and majesty. To Kurtev, head of the nature protection centre in Madzharovo in the Arda River valley, it is the work of moments to distinguish the White-Headed Vulture.

We are watching a sight to be seen only in this part of Bulgaria, and rare enough in Europe.
Eluding our lenses, even the most carefully-aimed telephoto equipment, with idle ease the vulture drifts back to its nest, folding away its wingspan, which measures 2.6m – about the length of a car.

Below, the Arda rushes through a bold broad curve in the valley, a stunning enough sight in itself, and yet we continue to crane our necks towards the upper recesses of the cliffs, awaiting Kurtev’s guidance.

"There," he says. It is an Egyptian Vulture, a species officially declared endangered, now taking its turn in the sultry late afternoon air.

Within the past six years, the number in Bulgaria has dropped by a third. The decline is happening in all its habitats, not only in Bulgaria and elsewhere in southern Europe but also in northern Africa and southern Asia.

Overall, the population of this species of vulture in Europe is half what it was 20 years ago, with similar declines elsewhere, in part because of the use of veterinary medicines passed on through the food chain and poisonous to vultures.

Along the scale of intelligence of bird species, Kurtev says, the Egyptian Vulture rates relatively highly. It uses tools – small rocks held in its beak to crack ostrich shells. It mates for life; Kurtev tells us of watching instances of jealous behaviour at apparent infidelity.

Preserving, assisting and raising awareness about the Egyptian Vulture and the White-Headed Vulture are among the key tasks set itself by the Nature Conservation Centre Eastern Rhodopes, set up in 1994 by the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds and opened to the public four years later.

The centre got finance from the Bulgarian-Swiss biodiversity conservation programme, and offers educational displays in a modern conference room (with interactive items for children, who make up a significant part of the 7000 annual visitors), river expeditions and can recommend accommodation at local hotels and campsites.
No support from the Government, and Kurtev also expresses frustration at the bureaucracy and delays in getting sites incorporated into Natura 2000, the EU-wide conservation network.

The centre draws in volunteers to assist in its work. Students are recruited to help monitor the birds’ sites. A network keeps phone contact when a carcass is spotted that can be checked by a local veterinarian and transported to one of the "restaurants" for vultures that the centre has set up.

From a vulture’s viewpoint, life has become increasingly difficult. There is a diminishing number of animals in the wild to die and become carrion; most livestock are in enclosed formal agriculture. The EU officials who drew up directives about the disposal of dead animals certainly had health considerations in mind, but there is no reason to believe that they would have taken the needs of waiting vultures into account.

This is the latter-day situation. Among humankind’s first major blows to the vultures was the large-scale laying of poison about 50 years ago, to kill wolves that were taking livestock. Poison passed on killed the vultures too. Some die when flight-path errors bring them into contact with high-voltage cables.

About the vultures, Kurtev speaks with authority and with passion. Not only are they intelligent, but they have a social structure by which they pass on the word about carrion, and a vulture finding food will summon others.

The vast wingspans enable vast travel. The vultures will fly hundreds of kilometres in a day in a quest for food.

There is an international, bilateral dimension too. Across the Greek border, there is a reserve at Dadya, and on occasion vultures, including the Eurasian black vulture, will fly from one site to another, eat and then return.

Kurtev also speaks with conviction about the need to build on the existing trans-national co-operation, which has started with people in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey, to help protect the vultures. Unlike its White-Headed counterpart, the Egyptian Vulture migrates to northern Africa, raising the need for co-operation with authorities there too.

Such protection is no mere part-time hobby.

While the centre facilitates people coming to experience the awesome sight of the vultures, it is also concerned that the impact of people should not be too great. Bad management of the number of people around the sites can be bad for the vultures, Kurtev says.
While much is known about the vultures, there are still learning experiences, which reinforces the need for volunteers to observe the birds, a task more than merely keeping track of numbers.

In May 2009, according to the BSPB website, such work led to the saving of a threatened Egyptian Vulture nest.
While carrying out monthly monitoring of the Egyptian Vulture, a BSPB team found that one of the pairs in the Provadiysko-Royaksko plateau Natura 2000 area was nesting in a niche in the cliffs, which is easily accessible to people through the use of an iron structure built to develop ecotourism.

At 8pm, the BSPB team observed two tourists using the iron structure to enter the cliff niche. As a result, an Egyptian vulture was disturbed and left the nest. The BSPB team followed the tourists and asked them to leave the area of the nest. Pictures had been taken of the nest, showing two eggs inside. After follow-up with local people, it was revealed to be known that only two days earlier, there had been only one egg in the nest. After flying away from the nesting site, the bird returned to the nesting niche and continued incubation.

The next day, BSPB began emergency protection of the nest. Over two days, four groups of tourists were diverted from an intended visit to the cliff, with an explanation about the importance of the conservation of the Egyptian Vulture.

After the municipal council was contacted, the traverse to the nesting niche on the structure was fenced off with barbed wire.

The Regional Inspectorate of Environment and Waters in Varna was contacted, and a section of the Biological Diversity Act invoked, which forbids human disturbance of endangered species. Within a day, the regional inspectorate had come up with draft emergency measures to prevent human interference to protect the nest.

Kurtev tells us that, at the rate at which they are dying out, within 20 years there will be no more Egyptian Vultures in Bulgaria. Systematic and successful conservation, he says, at trans-national level would be a long-term project, and at that, an extremely costly one.

The Nature Conservation Centre
The centre at Madzharovo has several roles – conservation, education and helping to develop eco tourism in the region.
Among its about 7000 visitors in 2008 were about 2000 children, coming in organised crimes for presentations and trips to learn more about nature conservation and the specific goals of the centre, the conservation of the rare vultures.

Set amid the trees on a gentle slope not far from a bridge across the Arda, the centre has various facilities including rafting – hardly white-water rafting, centre head Marin Kurtev explains.

It can also provide recommendations about places to stay and to eat in the area, while it has its own restaurant and refreshments on sale.
With an advance notice, it may be possible to provide guides, and the centre organises walks in the area to see the vultures.
The centre also works with the local community in a campaign to end the use of poisons, pesticides, illegal baits and to bring to an end poaching that also can take away potential carrion.

Useful links: bspb.org and vulturecenter.com