News from the Strait of Messina

In the last two days temperatures in Italy are dropping fast. Maybe this is the reason why many small falcons started to migrate south and yesterday we observed the passage of about 400 falcons at the Aspromonte mountain, Strait of Messina. Probably there are also other variables affecting the passage of these falcons at the Strait such as weather conditions encountered en route. But in any case observing the passage of hundreds of these small raptors flying fast over the watchpoint is amazing!

News from the Strait of Messina

In the last two days our main raptor counter (Michele Cento) took pictures (here below) of two eagles, one Lesser-spotted eagle and one Bonelli's eagle. The first species is a regular but scarce migrant at the Strait. The Bonelli's eagle is not a migratory species but the number of observations of this species is increasing in the Aspromonte mountain thanks to the conservationist efforts at their breeding grounds in Sicily.

New paper out now!! Raptor counts, best practices and radar

A new paper by our research network has been published on Bird Study. The paper highlights the importance of using field protocols during counts of migrating birds and the need of sharing objectives and best practices among monitoring groups working in migratory bottlenecks. Moreover in the paper are reported case studies to show how can be useful to use a radar on migratory bottlenecks. First in order to localize focal points of passage, second to calculate the percentage of raptors passed undetected by visual observers, and last to evaluate the proportion of raptors undertaking the sea crossing on coastal areas. 

You can find the paper at the link below:

• Panuccio M., Agostini N., Bogliani G. & Dell'Omo G. 2018. Migrating raptor counts: the need for sharing objectives and field protocols, and the benefits of using radar. Bird Study DOI:10.1080/00063657.2018.1506423

News from the Strait of Messina

The passage of raptors at the Strait of Messina in the first days of September was impressive. Our counters observed up to now the passage of 18477 Honey Buzzards! Of course also many other raptors were observed and in the last few days numbers of Marsh harriers are increasing.