Conservation of birds of prey in Sicily

Medraptors would like to support an important project for the protection of two rare species of Mediterranean raptors. The project is promoted by several NGO and Foundations active in southern Italy (CABS, EBN Italy, FIR, LIPU, MAN, WWF). In particular the two endangered species are: the Bonelli's Eagle and the Lanner Falcon. The main threats for these raptors in Sicily are linked to the illegal trafficking of eggs and chicks from nest. The project is developped to prevent this detrimental activity. In 2012, 75 volunteers have assisted to the fledging of 32 young eagles!

To improve the project is requested the help of everybody. If you want to partecipate or to support the conservation programme you can write us or to the coordinator of the project Giovanni La Grua (lagruagio[at]alice.it). To read more about it, click on the link below:

Raptor conservation in Sicily

On the picture a beautiful young Bonelli's Eagle born in a monitored nest in 2012.

Darwin Day

Darwin Day is an international celebration of science and humanity held on  February 12, the day when Charles Darwin was born in 1809. Specifically, it celebrates the discoveries and life of Charles Darwin, the man who first described biological evolution via natural selection with scientific rigor.
We celebrate the Darwin Day because we believe it is very important to popularize the scientific method and the basis of the evolutionary science also because of the attempts to go back at level knowledge before Darwin. Or why not, before Newton...

Common buzzard eating a toad

In the Natural Reserve of Decima Malafede (Rome) it has been observed a Common buzzard eating a toad (Bufo bufo). It was a big female toad with eggs inside her, as you can see from the pictures below. Toads are unusual preys for raptors and for other kind of predators because of the secretion of toxic substances produced by skin glands.

New papers out now!

In these first weeks 2013  two new papers have been published relying on raptor migration and wintering. 

The first one is published on Bird Study and shows, through a ringing recoveries analysis, the leap-frog migration patterns of Western Marsh Harriers. Individuals "breeding in Northern and Eastern Europe migrate farther than individuals belonging to the populations within Western and Southern Europe, with no effect of age classes in relation to the latitude of wintering." Moreover "Males show a tendency to migrate longer distances than females" and "when taking into account only birds wintering south of the Sahara desert, juveniles winter further west than adults". The latter result "could be related to the different ability of experienced individuals to compensate for the wind drift of dominant easterly winds during migration over the desert in autumn.".

The other paper compares the autumn migration of Western Marsh Harriers and juvenile European Honey Buzzards through Greece. The paper is published on Journal of Biological Research-Thessaloniki. The results of this study show two different migration strategies, the Western Marsh Harriers "migrate through parallel flyways, while juvenile European Honey Buzzards migrate island hopping being attracted by landmarks and following leading lines of land masses.". The reason of this different migratory behaviour could be related to morphological differences in the two species. "A simulation process demonstrated marked differences in the energy consumption rates between the two species, highlighting that the powered flapping flight is particularly more disadvantageous for the European Honey Buzzard rather than for the Western Marsh Harrier".

Here following the links to read the papers:

• Panuccio M., Mellone U. & Muner L. 2013. Differential wintering area selection in Eurasian Marsh Harrier (Circus aeruginosus): a ringing recoveries analysis. Bird Study http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00063657.2012.753399.
• Panuccio M., Chiatante G. & Tarini D. 2013. Two different migration strategies in response to an ecological barrier: Western Marsh Harriers and juvenile European Honey Buzzards crossing the central-eastern Mediterranean in autumn. Journal of Biological Research-Thessaloniki 19: 10-18.

Moreover are available the abstracts of two presentations made at two recent congresses  held in Italy last autumn:

• Panuccio M., Agostini N. & Barboutis C. 2012. Raptor migration in Greece: a review. Proceedings of the II Italian Conference on raptors: 16-17, Treviso, October 2012.
• Catoni C., Santini M., Panuccio M., Massa B. & Dell’Omo G. 2012. Radar applications to study bird behaviour. Proceedings of the XXV Meeting of the Italian Society of Etology: 43, Viterbo, September 2012.

Approaching deadline for the Grundtvig scholarship

These are the last days to apply for the Grundtvig scholarship to participate at the training course on raptor migration research tecniques. THE DEADLINE TO SEND THE APPLICATION FOR SCHOLARSHIP IS ON JANUARY THE 16th. The course will be held next May in Pachino, Sicily. There is the chance to apply for scholarships  provided from the UE (eligible: citizens of the 27 Member States of the EU with the exception of the Italian people, citizens of countries of the European Economic Area-EEA countries and of Candidate countries).  You can find the call with information about the course and the scholarship at the following link: 

http://www.raptormigration.org/MEDRAPTORS-projects2007.htm

Presentations will range among different topics of animal movement research using different methods (visual observations, long-term monitoring programs, radar tracking, GPS, GSM, GLS) and focusing their study on different aspect of bird migration (ecology, ethology, conservation, influence of climate change). Among the speakers Alejandro Onrubia (Fundacion Migres), Giacomo Dell'Omo (Ornis Italica) and the Medraptors staff. Moreover there will be the chance to visit some Important Bird Areas of south-east Sicily. For further information and help in compile the application form and write an email to: Natalia Carpanzano (legambiente.eu.projects@gmail.com).

Best wishes for the new year 2013 from Medraptors. In the hope of a better, prosperous and sustainable new year, for all of us and for our planet.

Antikythira Bird Observatory - spring 2013

Antikythira Bird Observatory, run by the Hellenic Ornithological Society (the Greek partner of BirdLife), is organizing a bird ringing campaign, supervised by the Hellenic Bird Ringing Center. They are searching for ringers and helpers to join as volunteers for the spring season of 2013.

For more information on the project and logistics please click here.