The Vultures of Alcoy

 Alcoy, a city located to the north of Alicante surrounded by beautiful mountains, has gained fame as the best place to see griffon vultures in the area. These birds were recently reintroduced to the Barranc del Sinc looming over the city, where they have found home on the precipitous cliffs. I've been to the gorge twice, but every time I watched them from below as they circled overhead. This time, however, I thought to myself, who don't I climb the mountains lining the gorge, and see the vultures from there? 

It took an exhausting amount of time getting to Alcoy, and the climb out from Alcoy to the start of the gorge similarly was tiring. I stood at the trailhead , looking at the vertical cliffs extending hundreds of meters into the air. A flock of griffon vultures, about 10 birds, was circling overhead. 

It took me a while to locate the trail leading up to the top of the cliffs, but eventually I did manage and was underway soon enough. The trail was extremely steep, and it took quite a bit of effort to gain height along it as it zigzagged across the mountain. Eventually I did make it to the top, where there was a small church and viewpoint. After standing around here for a little while, I found the trail that would take me to the cliffs and view them from the top. 

The trail wound through an aleppo pine woodland, which hid the drop from view. It took quite some time to get up this slope before I emerged from the woods nearly at the top of the mountain. The view from here was breathtaking. I could see the gorge far below, and the peaks of Mola de Serelles and Montcabrer in the distance. The highest peaks still had a cover of snow on them.

I could even see Aitana, the highest peak in the region, to the southeast, with its military radar installation on the top. I was a bit nervous sitting where I was because there was a vertical 150+ meter drop a meter from my position. Fortunately though, the mountain itself formed a sort of a natural guardrail, a 40-cm high face of rock which stood between me and the drop and made a very good place to put the camera on. 

As I waited, an enormous griffon vulture came out of view behind the cliffs and soared up in front of me at eye level. And it was close too. As close as 20-30 meters, and I was able to see its colouration in detail with the naked eye, as well as its colossal size. 

It was later joined by a few others, some of which soared into the distance, and some of which approached the cliffs and landed somewhere on them. It didn't take much time to see where they landed, leading to a discovery of an entire group of griffon vultures loitering on the cliffs. Sitting almost right on the edge of the precipice, they were closer to the ground than I was, allowing me to look down at the birds. 

A few other vultures then drifted into view, one of which looked at me briefly as it soared past even closer than the previous one did. Then another hovered into view, circling nearby, as if trying to get a better look at me. 

Having these huge birds circling so close to me was an astounding experience. Briefly I considered if I should continue the trek to the Alt de les Pedreres, the highest point on the mountain, but decided against it because the track led very close to the drop. So I headed downhill and on the way out of Alcoy saw griffon vultures circling both over the gorge and even near Ibi, quite a distance away. There also was a pair of large birds of prey with a moderately long tail hunting near Sierra del Maigmo, which I think may have been golden eagles