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Report on Sakers' Wintering Sites in Niger |
(2010/07/12)
Late October 2009 the satellite-tracked Saker Dorottya from Hungary arrived in Niger. She spent most of the following four months 50-25 km NNE of Zinder (roughly 14.00 N 9.00 E). The areas where she stayed are mostly quite flat coversands. Local rainfall averages 300-400 mm/yr. The main crop is the grain crop millet, grown by Haussa farmers. The other main land use is pastoralism, carried out primarily by Peul families.
From 7-16 February field work was carried out to investigate her behaviour and ecology in that area. She was observed twice. One regurgitation pellet and one plucking remains were found. Twenty km of power line were walked, and 25 prey-and-vegetation transects of about 2 km each.
The pellet contained remains of a beetle or beetles and of birds. No mammal hairs were found. The plucking remains may have been of a chicken. The local vegetation structure proved to be very open, with less than 20 trees/ha. The area were Dorottya stayed the first two months, around Dania, still contained some more or less natural habitat. Where she stayed the second two months, around Toumnia, all had been converted to millet fields A third area, 70 km further south-west, were she stayed only one night, had more trees (70 trees/ha) but was also mostly millet fields Local bird biomass observed varied from 1 to 2.5 kg per km of transect. Grasshopper presence and reptile presence were low, mammal hole presence was not very high either. Comparison with habitats and prey availability in areas in Europe would be of interest.
The main danger to Saker appears to come from boys with slingshots and from local hunters. On the other hand birds like the Saker are seen as bringing good luck, and as useful in controlling birds and rodents that may attach millet crops. These aspects may be entry points for a conservation campaign for Saker and other raptors.
Full report (in English) >>
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Saker Conservation - To Be Continued |
(2010/06/21)
EU's LIFE Committee has approved our new Saker conservation project for support. The aims of the project are to transfer knowledge from the recent LIFE programme to Romanian and Bulgarian colleagues on one hand, and on the other hand to continue insulation of the most dangerous places in Hungary and - involving one electric company as a partner (Západoslovenská energetika, a.s.) - in Slovakia. In the frame of the project, effects of wind farms and diet composition will also be assessed.
14 organisations of 4 countries will participate in the project co-ordinated by Bükk National Park Directorate.
Project partners:
In Bulgaria: BirdLife Bulgaria
In Hungary: Kiskunság NPD, Körös-Maros NPD, MME/BirdLife Hungary, Pro Vértes Public Fund, Zöld Folyosó Public Fund, ÉMÁSZ, DÉMÁSZ, MAVIR
In Romana: MILVUS, BirdLife Romania
In Slovákiában: RPS, ZSE, a.s.
Duration of the project: 01.10.2010 - 30.09.2014.
Approved total budget: € 4 032 828 - of which 74,55% will be covered by the EU
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Saker Falcon lost his battle after fatal injury |
(2010/01/28)
Three months of intense rehabilitation were not enough to save a falcon. Unfortunately, the Saker Falcon - a globally endangered species did not make it back to the wild. The bird underwent a serious operation; however its condition did not improve and likely as a result of a bacterial infection the bird died in early January 2010.
The Saker Falcon was found unable to fly at the beginning of November 2009 in Podunajské Biskupice (part of Bratislava). It was a 3 – 4 years old male without an ornithological ring, therefore it was not possible to identify the origin country of the bird. Employees of the State Nature Conservancy took the injured bird to be examined by the vet. X-rays scan revealed a bullet lodged in the bird’s coccyx. Owing to the historic nature of the injury, the specialist decided not to remove the bullet. However, whilst the bird’s recovery was being monitored no further progress was noticed. Another scan was conducted, which found the presence of a second bullet trapped in the tip of its wing. Following this revelation the decision was made for the bird to undergo surgery to remove both bullets. Everyone was hopeful that this procedure would aid to make its recovery.
The Saker Falcon had become a victim of illegal shooting. All delicts affecting birds are referred to as ‘bird crime’. From that reason a suggestion for prosecution of an unknown offender was submitted to the responsible Police Authority. Every year there is tens of birds that fall victim to the bird crime in Slovakia. Besides the illegal shooting, criminal activity includes laying poisoned bait and traps, nest robbery, illegal trapping and breeding. In 2009 four Saker Falcons were found poisoned by ‘carbofuran’ in the same place. This case demonstrates the extent of the problem.
In 2009 only 34 pairs of Saker were nesting in Slovakia. To protect the critical endangered species different conservation programmes are being implemented. One of those is a common Slovak-Hungarian project „Conservation of Falco cherrug in the Carpathian basin“, supported by the European Commission, LIFE-Nature programe, implemented from 2006 in both countries.
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János, the saker falcon electrocuted |
(2010/01/07)
It was a bad start of the New Year for Sakers, as well as conservationists. János, the satellite-tracked adult male Saker was found electrocuted in 04 January 2010. He was 7 years old.
MME/BirdLife Hungary were informed about a satellite-tracked Saker, which had been found near Tököl (a few km south from Budapest) on 4th January 2010. On the spot, it turned out that the Saker is János, the adult male Saker that had been tagged in the frame of the common Hungarian-Slovak LIFE-Nature project.
János fledged with his sister and brother at Apaj ‘puszta’ in June 2002. János was identified by his ornithological ring, which was fitted on him before fledging in 2002. In March 2008, he was caught to get tagged near his natal area. That time Janos was already an adult bird and he became one of the three adult birds mounted with PTT’s in the frame of the LIFE programme. The aim of satellite tracking of adult birds is to learn more about the size and quality of the habitat they are using. These new information help to prepare a more efficient conservation programme for Sakers.
János had a failed breeding attempt in 2008, but the pair bred successfully in 2009. The only chick of János – named ‘Karcsi’ – was fitted with a satellite transmitter too. The family stayed together until mid-July, when Karcsi left Hungary for a long journey across Ukraine and back ending in Bulgaria, where his last signals came from.
János stayed within his own territory until middle of November, and after then he moved to the adjacent areas, where food availability was better, and where he spent his last days too. János’ carcass was found near Tököl, under a non-insulated medium-voltage straining pylon on 4th January 2010. The bird might have wanted to perch on it, when he got electrocuted.
One of the main reasons of human-caused mortality of protected birds – especially white storks and birds of prey – is electrocution on medium-voltage pylons.
MME/ Birdlife Hungary and directorates of Hungarian national parks have been revealing and attempting to solve that conservation problem in co-operation with different electric companies for several decades with the financial support of Ministry of Environment and Water Affairs, as well as the European Union. As a result of the work, more and more pylons have became bird-friendly, but still recently only 10% of the dangerous pylons are insulated in Hungary, and this case shows that we have to focus on that issue in the future too.
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