Meeting with Gyps fulvus

The wind was north-east, as in the last period, with some turbulence and instability. While assembling hang gliders, we check the sky to monitor cumulus development in orderto make the correct choice for flight direction. Suddenly Eddy discover a Gyps fulvus - not particularly strange in our area as, not far from here, in the town of Comino, there is a facility for reintroducing the Gyps fulvus in our mountains. Very often we share thermals with them, as do the pupils with their master.

But, now, the Gyps fulvus was flying over us too close, with the “gears” already in landing position. I shout to my friends: ”it’s going to land, look at the “gear”. Suddenly, flying closer to take off, up to the area where there is a changing in slope, it disappears: it was landed exactly below, where we have the ramp. This looks very strange as, after many years, nobody has ever seen a Gyps fulvus landing so close. As we try to approach, very curious, closer than two feet, it does not move: it’s hard to imagine our comments and emotions!

After a while, we took the decision to return to our gliders on the top of the slope when, suddenly, the Gyps fulvus starts flying again; after a couple of turns over our heads, it points directly to our gliders, landing closer than before. When we realise that between us “the ice was broken”, we approach, we took pictures, in other words we set up a friendship, and nobody can realise how fantastic it was. After half an hour we took-off living our “friend” at launching area. Later on, other friends reported that the Gyps fulvus reach also the paragliders take-off, not far from ours, playing the same role of protagonist.

In the coming days we have been told that the Gyps fulvus, named Gypsy, was born into an incubator, from an egg abandoned in the nest by his parents, and that it growths up with a man in the Alpenzoo of Innsbruck. Gypsy was looking for close contacts with human beings – in nature this hardly happens – and today we have been protagonists with it.

We know that in the near future, we should probably be satisfied by looking at it flying the sky, but certainly, from now on, we would exchange our glancings while thermalling with it, the king of our valley!