Kelaynack flies south

(from BirdLife Community)

Following a successful breeding season for the semi-wild Northern Bald Ibis population at Birecik, Turkey, six of the birds were released as part of trial re-introductions work in late July. A dedicated team first caught up all the birds for the annual ringing/check of the birds at the Birecik ‘Kelaynak’ breeding station run by the Turkish Ministry of Nature Protection and National Parks, and six were selected for release in the hope that they would survive and migrate. Three were fitted with satellite transmitters, and to reduce the chance of persecution, their bright rings were replaced with much less conspicuous ones. Four of the birds were 2013 juveniles, and in addition, two one-year old birds were also released.

For the first two weeks, the birds remained very close to the breeding station, feeding at a number of local sites in the area, as well as taking supplementary food provided. This week, however, excitement mounts as five of the birds have departed south, and the intriguing news is that they have stopped off very close to Palmyra in Syria, where the remaining wild population there has this year sadly declined to just one individual.

Whether the birds will stay in the area or continue their ‘migration’ further south, we will find out from the satellite signals. The work was recommended as a priority at last year’s inaugural meeting of the AEWA International Working Group for Northern Bald Ibis, held at Jazan in Saudi Arabia and by the International Advisory Group for Northern Bald Ibis. Several partners are involved in the work in addition to the Turkish Ministry, with satellite tags provided by Doğa Derneği (BirdLife in Turkey), with Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and RSPB (BirdLife in the UK) support.

This news is brought to you by the BirdLife Preventing Extinctions Programme

Breeding finish at Tamri

Aylal has left the colony on May 15^th. It has been around Tamri since the beginning of February.

It’s installed in the central part of SMNP. The colonies in the Park have still chicks due to the gap between nesting in Tamri and in Massa.

Mild winter and wet spring have probably contributed to the earlier beginning of the breeding season.

Aylal, again at Tamri

Aylal, which was based in the Douira area since April, has been making trips eastwards, sometimes up to 18 kilometres inland. Occasionally there was also a shift to the south to the Souss-Massa National Park limits.

On October 19th, however, in the morning, it moved northwards, stopping at Cape Ghir and finishing at Tamri area, where it has been spending last days.

Aylal carries a GPS satellite tag, donatedby Dublin zoosince July 2010. This equipment allows us to know where it moves with a greatdetail.

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund supports NBI conservation in Morocco

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund has granted SEO/BirdLife with US$5,000 in order to mark some NBI with GPS tags.

The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund is a significant philanthropic endowment established to do the following:

1- Provide targeted grants to individual species conservation initiatives
2- Recognize leaders in the field of species conservation; and
3- Elevate the importance of species in the broader conservation debate 

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.

Aylal's update

Since mid April, Aylal stayed in an area in the north of the park and unprotected area beside it. It didn't make big movements. Bassically, it's spent all the night by the same roost on the coast and move by the coast and inland during the day.

Scimitar-horned oryx at Arrouais reserve
(photo Imad Cherkaoui)

Some of those records are on the Arrouais reserve, not far from Tifnit, which is a protected area where gazelles and scimitar-horned oryx are in acclimatation for their further reintroduction in nature. For instance, one reintroduction took place in 2008 in the Mssissi reserve, in Errachidia region.
Vegetation there is formed by Ononis natrix, Retama monosperma, Echinops spinosus, Lycium intricatum, Launaea arborescens, Centaurea sp. and Limonium mucronatum, in addition to some exotic Eucalyptus and Acacia trees that where planted decades ago to avoid wind erosion.
NBI usually don't come into this reserve, maybe because vegetation is too dense, but it seems to be an adequate habitat for feeding in some seasons. In fact, the prefered feeding area is the coastal strip west to the reserve, where the Tiznit village is and where the steppe is well developed among the fixed dunes.

The GPS records show us some other preferred sites outside the National Park. It’s well known that NBI use to feed sometimes outside the limits of the protected area, usually on fallows.

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.

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.

Aylal, at the colony

Last data recived from Aylal show us that it's has joined Tamri colony since March, 4th. Aylal has spent last weeks around the area of Tamraght, but now it seems to be full time in the area of the colony.

Nevertheless, our wardens feel that the breeding season is a bit delayed compared to previous years, probably due to drought during winter and some recent cold weather.

All three Syrian adults, back in Palmyra

Our colleagues in Syria just told us that all three adults, Odeinat, Salama and Zenobia, are safely back from migration on the Syrian breeding grounds today. Odeinat has been transmitting since a couple of weeks, but Salama hadn't since late last year, but this now seems to simply be tag failure rather than anything worse. 

Still no sign of the other two untagged birds that were seen on the Ethiopian wintering grounds, so where those birds go is becoming a source of speculation. 

Or perhaps they will appear at Palmyra one of these days.

From RSPB

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.

Around the breeding quarters

After spending much of the past few months in the southern SMNP, over the past few weeks, Aylal started heading north, over the coastal strip between Agadir and Tamri. It is about the beginning of the breeding season and it is likely that the group of breeders at Tamri are frequenting the area around the colony.

News on Nader

As recently, Aylal is still in the southern part of Souss-Massa National Park. Nader, on its side, is in the north half but between 24th and 26th it went to the Taghazout area, north to Agadir. The accuracy ot its tag doesn't allow us to know where exactly it went, but it confirms that the narrow coastal steppe north to Agadir is very important for Northern Bald Ibis during some periods of the year.
Nevertheless, Nader returned to the area around Massa mouth on 26th.

Data from Aylal and Nader for the first two weeks in December

Since the beginning of December, Aylal and Nader have stayed inside the Souss-Massa National Park. They are, nevertheless, separate most of the time, judging by the records received from their transmitters. Nader is in the north part of SMNP and Aylal is just south of the Massa river mouth. 
The field data show that the birds are moving in flocks of about thirty.

Aylal and Nader in the south of Souss-Massa National Park

Since mid-November, our ibis have established themselves more or less in the southern area of Souss-Massa National Park, occasionally visiting the coastal area outside the protected area. Over the last week they have both established themselves in a roosting place south of the Oued Massa mouth. The entire southern area of the park is made up of cliffs, most of them inaccessible, where ibis can easily find places to spend the night. Both birds are feeding in the neighbouring fields, not far from the roost.

Update on Aylal

Aylal is continuing to travel to sites further and further south. This time, it spent the whole of 20th November in a coastal area about 20 km south of Aglou, which is the southern-most limit of the Souss-Massa National Park. Being gregarious, Aylal is not alone but has been travelling with a group of other ibis, thus this monitoring is providing important data on population level movements.
Nevertheless, it continues to return to the same roost it  used recently in a rugged cliff within the National Park.

Southward Bound

After returning from its' trip to the Tamri area on 31st October, Aylal moved southwards, beyond the mouth of the Oued Massa.Early in the morning of November 5th it was very close to the southernmost border of the Souss Massa National Park. It seems that it had travelled too far to return to its' usual roosting spot and so had stayed overnight in the area, probably with other ibis.
Aylal's behaviour is providing us with a lot of information on the patterns of movement and habitat use of this species and we hope to enhance out knowledge even more by tagging more individuals in the future.
Nader has been a bit less adventurous lately and didn't join Aylal for the journey southwards, staying instead in the northern area of the National Park.

Aylal's escape

Aylal, the adult ibis tagged with the GPS transmitter, made a getaway to the Tamri colony last Sunday (30th) and spent the night there before returning to the Souss Massa National Park on Halloween. Nader didn't follow its parent, confirming that although the birds are using the same feeding and roosting areas, they are now independent.

Although we are missing some data on Aylal's journey up north, on its return to its feeding grounds in the National Park it flew almost 60 km between two consecutive records, which equates to an average speed of at least 30 km/hour. This is the most northerly point reached by Aylal since it was tagged in July, and it actually went beyond the colony to some feeding grounds in the north where it has probably bred in the past.

Tagged ibis, together again

It seems that in recent weeks, Nader and Aylal have met again. 

The data received from their tags indicate that both are back in the northern area of ​​Souss Massa National Park, confirming the great importance of preserving this area where ibis spend a large part of the year, using the large and rich feeding areas.

They have probably lost their family behaviour due to the time they spent appart, but they move in the same group at least during part of the day.