Migration has started

Two of the five birds that we fitted with satellite transmitters have started their migration.

130393 left Fahal probably on 31 October or 1 November.  By 11:00 in the morning on 1 November it was located near Samail.  Later that day it was located near Nizwa.  See the map below.

Just to remind you, these are not GPS quality locations, and so the accuracy needs to be kept in mind. The different colors of the dots indicate the quality/accuracy of the location estimate, with the green dots being best quality, white being less good, and brown being the least good.  Also, the lines that join the dots can be misleading, and you must remember that the routes taken are very unlikely to be straight lines.  In any case, it seems that this bird took a route that took it through the Samail gap.

130393 makes his first move from Fahal around 1 November
(Click on the image and it will open in a separate window and be easier to see.).

130394 has also started migrating.  It left Fahal probably on 30 October, and by the 31st it was located between Nizwa and Ibri.  By 3 November it had already moved into southern Saudi Arabia on the border with Yemen about 20 km north of the town of Sharorah.  See the map below.

130394 moved from Fahal around 30 October, and by 3 November was in southern Saudi Arabia.

The other three birds fitted with transmitters are still on Fahal and all seem to be alive and well.