News from the Strait of Messina

Yesterday has been detected an amazing passage of Red-footed falcons at the Strait of Messina. In a few hours hundreds of them crossed the Strait on a broad front together with a beautiful Egyptian vulture, and good numbers of Montagu's harriers.

Here below a picture of the falcons taken by Giuseppe Cicero.

News from the Strait of Messina

Some days ago a flock of three Griffon vultures was observed at the Strait of Messina. Vultures were observed first on the Sicilian side and then also on the Calabrian side of the Strait. Vultures have crossed the Strait together, taking 35 minutes to fly across 23 km!

News from the Strait of Gibraltar

Here below two beautiful pictures taken by Juan Ramirez at the Strait of Gibraltar. The first one was taken yesterday at the Los Lances beach and shows an adult Egyptian vulture. The other one shows an exhausted Griffon vulture just arrived on the European side of the Strait.

New M.Sc. thesis!

This week Alberto Pastorino graduated at the University of Pavia. He made a Master thesis analysing individual differences in flight performances of Honey Buzzards migrating in southern Italy. Radar measurements were made on raptors flying singly and in flocks, and for each flock were tracked more individuals. The amazing results showed that faster speed is reached by individuals flying in flocks rather than alone and that there are significative differences among individuals of the same flock.