Still some hope for Eastern NBI population

From Chris Bowden, RSPB

Our trusted fieldworker in Ethiopian highlands, Yilma Abebe, with some RSPB support, managed to spend three days at the site where the relict Syrian birds mainly overwintered - and reported this week that three adult northern bald ibis! These included the female Zenobia who had previously been paired to Odeinat (who disappeared over a year ago in Saudi Arabia). Interestingly, she was accompanied by an unringed adult, so perhaps there’s a faint hope that they are indeed a pair, and might make it back to breed in Syria? There was also one other lone bird sighted in the area. We await further details of Yilma’s visit, but it’s good to know there is still a faint hope for the population.

As you may know or remember, only a single adult was seen back at the Syrian breeding site last spring, and despite the problems in the country, the field team there somehow managed to continue some field checks. Our thoughts are certainly with them and their families.



For earlier background:

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/tracking/northernbaldibis/

www.iagnbi.org

Eastern population: Odeinat stops transmitting

Our colleague Chris Bowden reports us that, sadly, Odeinat has stopped transmitting. The team responsible of his monitoring had hoped this might have been a temporary blip, but this now seems unlikely.

Although the solar-powered satellite tag has already transmitted for slightly longer than the manufacturers expected, it is rather worrying that it was an abrupt stop. We will obviously give any updates if things change, and any further interpretation on what may have happened. We hope to get the regular Ethiopian wintering site checked early next year, but its possible there may not be much to add until then. 

Unfortunately the site where Odeinat has overwintered the past years has not been possible to reach and check.

News from the Eastern population

Wonderful news from the Eastern population. After the new activity recorded last February 8th, Odeinat started moving North. Since 16th, in few days crossed Bab el-Mandeb, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and arrived to Syria!!

No signal yet from Salama, which is worrying as other years she re-started transmitting before these dates.

EWNHS

Other good news came from Ethiopia. Our colleagues from the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society (EWNHS), our BirdLife Partner, have been checking last week the area frequented by wintering NBI. They were able to find three birds. Two of them unringed (maybe same birds as appeared unexpectedly last year by the same area, perhaps Syrian juveniles from 2007 that have yet to return to the breeding grounds) and one ringed bird, either Zenobia or Salama.

Odeinat, transmiting again!

Odeinat, one of the two Syrian ibis which is monitored by RSPB, is equiped with a satellite tag that stopped working on November 2011. It started sending information again last February 8th, from an area North to Jijiga, in Ethiopia, a place that Odeinat has been visiting before last October. On 16th he transmitted again from a nearby site.