Wednesday, April 28, 2021

And, finally, the book!





Before passing away almost two years ago, our founder Michele Panuccio began to work on this challenging project, but unfortunately could not complete it. Ugo Mellone and Nicolantonio Agostini did their best to finalize this book, editing the chapters written by some of the major raptor migration experts worldwide. For the first time among WP raptors, and probably for the first time in any bird order, the migratory strategies of each species of a wide geographical area have been summarized according to the most recent findings.

From the foreword, by Richard Porter:

"As I pored over the draft chapters it brought home to me just how dramatically the study of raptor migration has advanced in the last 50 years. Back in the mid-1960s, when I started marvelling at the migration over Turkey’s Bosphorus, raptor watching and counting was a rare event, unheard of in most countries. [...] Now things have moved on apace with advances in identification, aging and sexing, widespread systematic counting at bottleneck sites, radar tracking and, of course, modern technology. Our knowledge would be so much the poorer without the ability to follow the migration and fortunes of these magnificent birds remotely by satellite telemetry. And so I dedicate this Foreword to Michele. What a fitting tribute it is that his colleagues have honoured him by completing the work he started. True friendship and a lasting legacy."

The book is in press and already available for order here or through NHBS and Amazon.

In the above mentioned website you can also find the full list of chapters with the respective authors. Each chapter includes at least a map and the color plates include spectacular photos of raptors during active migration, taken by several photographers.

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