While this blog focuses on the movements of a few birds, our main field effort is on the breeding grounds in Oman. Although we know quite a bit about that breeding population, in some places the population of breeding sooty falcons is less well known. One of those less well known populations is that on the Sept Freres Islands in Djibouti. Below are some pictures taken by Houssein Rayaleh, the director of Djibouti Nature, a local NGO, who visited the islands earlier this year, and found birds breeding. Houssein was unable to properly search the islands, but they are thought to hold 5-10 pairs, at least. Djibouti Nature is also a partner in the tracking of an Egyptian vulture in the horn of Africa
At the moment...
130393 and 130394 are in South Sudan, not making much migratory progress, but presumably taking up local foraging opportunities.
130395 and 130396 have not transmitted for some time, and have us worried. We are working with Saudi and other colleagues to try to determine what has happened.
130397 is moving around coastal Eritrea, probably doing exactly what 130393 and 190394 are doing.
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| The Djiboutian sooty falcon survey team |
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| A sooty falcon with its prey, an African collared dove |
130393 and 130394 are in South Sudan, not making much migratory progress, but presumably taking up local foraging opportunities.
130395 and 130396 have not transmitted for some time, and have us worried. We are working with Saudi and other colleagues to try to determine what has happened.
130397 is moving around coastal Eritrea, probably doing exactly what 130393 and 190394 are doing.
Thanks Mike and Houssein Rayaleh for these great news.
ReplyDeleteThe first report of the birds in those islands is of three pairs reported by Jones 1946 (whose report ended up on IBIS without is knowledge!). A, Laurent reported the presence of 'territorial' birds in the 1980ies. Finally Geoff & Hilary Welsh also observed the birds on those islands and on a other Djibouti island. Great to have confirmation of their continued presence.
A curiosity: the record of Jones was misinterpreted by Moreau (1969) who thought the 'Brothers' Jones referred to were the two islands SW of Socotra. This error was not spotted by Walter (1979) who reported correctly 'Brothers is. (Gulf of Aden)' in the table #4, but located the species nesting site near Socotra in the map (Fig. 3). This error is not in the distribution map available at the BirdLife datazone species factsheet http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3606