MEDRAPTORS has reached 10 years of activity! Join the MEDRAPTORS meeting

Our reached goals:

• Tens of publications
• Different new migratory flyways have been discovered  
• Observation camps
• Collaboration effort with different research organizations belonging to different countries
• 11 discussed theses (2 Ph.D., 5 M.Sc, 4 B.Sc.) in five different Universities

To discuss about what it was done and about future projects and to meet together we invite all our friends and colleagues to come at the Medraptors meeting the next September on the Aspromonte mountain (Southern Italy).
The meeting will be held in Gambarie d'Aspromonte (Reggio Calabria) on the 19th, the 20th and the 21st of September 2014.

Chronological schedule:

• 19th evening: meeting point
• 20th observations on raptor migration. In this period  the passage of Marsh Harriers and juvenile Honey Buzzards occurs. In the evening we'll have dinner in a typical restaurant and we'll have the chance to discuss together. 
• 21st observations on raptor migration

The participation is free
(dinner and accommodation have to be charged on the participants, accommodation is possible in a agreed upon bed & breakfast)

Gambarie is a small village located at about 1350 metres a.s.l. inside the Aspromonte National Park. The area is covered by forests of beech and silver fir. The area is the most important bottleneck for the autumn migration of raptors in the Central Mediterranean area and last year  30.000 raptors heading south were counted.
It is possible to reach Gambarie with a bus from Reggio Calabria where there is both the train station and the airport.
For further information contact us.

A new fieldwork!

The breeding season is closed in the end (more or less) for the European raptors and in the next weeks they will start again to move across the Central Mediterranean area. Therefore we are close to start a new fieldwork on the Aspromonte mountain together with our colleagues of Ornis Italica. In that area last year were counted about 30000 thousand raptors, mostly Honey Buzzards, Black Kites and Marsh Harriers. Raptors migrate following the ridge of the Apennines heading toward Sicily and flying over the forest and the plain of the Aspromonte before crossing the Strait of Messina.

For further information about the project contact us.

Black Kites in Central Italy

In Central Italy chicks of the Black Kite are close to fledgling. Here in the picture below an adult individual feeding the youngs in its nest. The picture was taken yestarday morning in the Natural Reserve of Decima Malafede close to Rome.

16705 raptors at the Strait of Messina

After a long time a new post to report the results of the observations that we carried out last spring on the continental side of the Strait of Messina. We counted 16705 individuals and 15 species of raptors from a single watchpoint between the 8th of April and the 20th of May. As expected most of them were Honey Buzzards. Next appointment in August when there will be held the new fieldwork together with our friends of Ornis Italica.

News from the Strait of Messina

A first heavy passage of Honey Buzzards was recorded yesterday at the Strait of Messina after some days of rain, fog and clouds. On the anniversary of the Liberation from fascism in Italy, several hundreds of Honey Buzzards have been observed moving toward north along the valleys of the Aspromonte mountain. Together with them many Marsh Harriers, Montagu's Harriers and some Booted Eagles, Hobbys and Kestrels. Unfortunately many individuals were shot by poachers in the evening when raptors went to roost and  passed low over the houses of the Calabrian villages. This was possible because of the lack of control by the Forestry rangers who have not yet started  the anti-poaching operations.

To read more (in italian) click here: Gea-press

New B.Sc. thesis!

Some days ago Sara Capotosti discussed her thesis in Informatics at the University La Sapienza of Rome. She developed a web portal in order to support the research related to raptor movements and their dissemination basing on MEDRAPTORS activity. The title of the thesis is: "RaptorMigration a web portal for the study and the observations of migrating raptors". We congratulate with her and we hope to launch a new MEDRAPTORS website realized thanks to her thesis next summer.

New project!

We started a new project together with the association Ornis Italica in order to investigate the migration of raptors at the Strait of Messina. The aim of this research is to collect data on the flight behaviour of migrating raptors. The fieldwork started at the beginning of April and will go on until the 20th of May. Also the autumn migration will be monitored between the 10th of August and the end of September. Up to now we monitored the passage of Marsh Harriers and Montagu's Harriers moving along the slope of the Aspromonte mountain on the continental side of the Strait.

If you are interested in this project write to us.