The birds are in wintering grounds, some a bit further as usually.
Luule surpriced us well! We lost signals of her in the beginning of December and thought she might be perished... But now we got information from EBN Italia mailing list (through Enrico Zarri and Giovanni La Grua) about tagged GSE observed in eastern Sicily. Photographer and bird watcher Paolo Galasso took some photos of that eagle and it seems quite similar to Luule. If we get permission of photographer we insert these also to Luules gallery.
Tõnns gallery we supplemented with new pictures of Clausjannic Labuz from Denmark.
Behind the Sahara there seems to be drier as usually, because Priidu moved more south as usually and also Osprey Erika moved southward to the Ad Damazin Reservoire (once she was there earlier also). We are looking for contacts from Uganda, to find somebody who is interested to check last known place of Kaarel...
30.11.2011 Winter on map
Since 20th of November most of transmitters started the winter season, that means data transmissions only after every ten days and only three locations per day will received. That is because to diminish costs. These transmitters are mostly for to get data about breeding season and migration, but wintering is not so prioritized. Maybe in the future?
Tõnn feels in Hondo wetlands like at home, being acompanied by two other Greater Spotted Eagles. Also other birds seem to be safely at wintering grounds, except Kaarel and Lootvina (those are lost in Uganda and Egypt, respectively). Second Crane, Ahja2 seems to be well in wintering area, at southern coast of Turkey, Ceyhan River Delta - flood plain, that is quite known by millions of wintering birds. The place is not very far of wintering site of Iti, only some 150 km.
26.10.2011 Spotted Eagles make the news
There is again reasons to write about Spotted Eagles. Tõnn arrived by October 24th to Limousine department in France. There near the same place on the border river is built the dam named as Barrage de l'Aigle (Dam of an Eagle).
LSE Karin was yesterday in Zambia and is still moving southward. Her mate (in breeding time) Kaarel flies south along Sudanese-Ethiopian border area. Luule found new place to stop in Italy - Lago di Massaciuccoli. That is also a wetland and local bird watchers have already seen Luule there resting on poplar tree.
Valdur, the Black Stork started from Israel and will migrate to Ethiopia.
23.10.2011 Surprise from Italy
Somewhat surprisingly we found LSE Luule in Italy by last data. She flew from southern tip of Croatia to Italy around noon 16th of October. In Italy Luule turned to northwest along western coast of Italy - maybe that is good to avoid a bit dangerous Sicily? 21-22 of October Luule stopped in the Natural Reserve "Padule
di Fucecchio", today it is the largest inland marsh in Italy, situated in northern part of Tuscany. We will see, if Luule likes to stay there for winter or to look wider around...
Migration of Crane Lootvina is developing well, by 21st of October he was in Egypt, southern tip of Sinai peninsula. There are noticeable day tracks with Lootvina, he flew couple of times with 24 hours over 1000 km and 900 km. By data of crane specialist Aivar Leito, these are like world records for Cranes! We don't know if the Cranes stopped during these routes, because we get only one location for every day and that contains only coordinates. Another juvenile Crane Ahja2 is waiting for good weather conditions in border area between Byelorussia and Ukraine.
LSE Karin crossed Equator in 20th of October.
Five tagged birds have reached wintering grounds: Leida (Sudan), Priidu (Sudan, western Darfur), Raivo (Israel), Iti (Turkey, Göksü river delta), Erika (Sudan).