Monday 30 April 2012

Aylal leaves the colony

Since mid-April, Aylal, who has spent last weeks in the breeding colony, deserted Tamri region to establish in the Northern area of Souss-Massa National Park, the same it has been occupying before breeding season

Nest desertion is not common, but sometimes happens either when one individual in the pair disappears or if clutch is lost. The first quarter has been very dry this year. Between January and March, the total rain amount has been just 5,6 mm and humidity less than 55% on average. On the other side, the same trimester in previous years has been much more humid, with 124 mm in 2010 and 158 mm in 2011 and an average humidity of more than 65%. Those conditions have probably been too bad for overall productivity and for food availability.

Saturday 21 April 2012

Four adult birds in Syria!!

Despite the fact that the country is going through a hard time, the ibis rangers in Syria told us this week that a fourth bird has just arrived back at the breeding site in Palmyra!
As our colleagues from RSPB describe in the website on the monitoring of this population,  he newly arrived bird is an unringed adult, perhaps a bird born in 2007. This could also be one of the two unringed birds seen in February at the wintering site in Ethiopia. It is not yet clear whether it is a male and if it is pairing up with the unpaired female (Salama) or not. If it was the case, we should have two breeding pairs this year. In fact, Odeinat and Zenobia have nested once again this season.
Salama satellite tag has stopped transmitting, but Odeinat's one is still working.

Saturday 14 April 2012

First chicks

Since the last week of March, the first chicks started to hatch at Moroccan colonies. As we already commented, our wardens feel that there's a little delay in the phenology, due, mainly, to the lack of rain during last winter that could have an impact on ecosystem productivity and, thus, on food availability.
Data received from Aylal show us that adults in Tamri stay in a narrow coastal area of about 8 km long but less than two kilometers wide.

Sunday 1 April 2012

Aylal at Tamri


Since last post on Aylal, this ibis equiped with a GPS satellite tag stays around Tamri colonie, making short movements three or four kilometters appart from the colony.
This behaviour is absolutely normal during breeding season and shows the importance of having good feeding habitats close to good nesting sites.
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