Swimming griffon

This stunning sequence was taken by Juan Ramirez some weeks ago at the Strait of Gibraltar. Despite the Strait is only 14 km wide at its narrowest point, the largest raptors find serious difficulties to use flapping flight to overcome it. During the flight across the Strait it is not rare that some vultures or eagles died in the attempt of crossing the Strait. This time a Griffon Vulture fell into the sea but he was not discouraged and he reached the coast "swimming"!  The bird survived and when it dried up it flew away showing an amazing case of how any individuals fight for its survival.

The Kite and the Jay

This video shows an adult Black Kite defending its nest from a jay. The video was taken two days ago by Jean-Philippe Audinet in the Natural Reserve of Decima Malafede that hosts a population of about 11 pairs of Black Kites. Unfortunately the population of this species in central Italy is declining probably because of a lack of resources.

Raptor evening at the Science Museum of Trento

Talking about raptor migration tomorrow evening at the Science Museum of Trento 

News from the Strait of Messina

In these days we are recording the late passage of raptors at the Strait of Messina, mostly Honey Buzzards even if not exceeding some hundred of individuals per day. While here below a nice picture taken by Giovanni Cumbo of an Osprey in migration  carrying  a fish for his breakfast. 

Egyptian vultures at the Strait of Messina!

Yesterday it was an astonishing migration day at the Strait of Messina. We counted more than 2600 raptors and 3 beautiful Egyptian vultures! This species is now so rare in the Italian peninsula that not every year we observe it at the Strait, while this spring we already counted 6 individiduals.

Here below a picture of two individuals observed yesterday at our station.

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!