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Friday, February 13, 2015

Early February 2015

Sadly it seems like 140653 (Fahal) has gone missing. We have not received a transmission since 31 January.  When it was last heard, the bird seemed to be alive, so either the bird has died and is now not visible to the satellites and maybe not in a sunny place, the tag has malfunctioned or the tag has been dropped in a place where it can not see the satellites and/or has no sun to power it.  While we have no evidence that weather had anything to do with the disappearance of the signal. Madagascar has had a number of heavy storms since 1 January.

130393 (Daymani) is moving around in a limited area near Morandava. This suggests that there is probably a lot of prey.  Last spring, when our team travelled in Madagascar, many sooty falcons were seen in this area, and historical records suggest that they concentrate there.

Movements of sooty falcons form Oman in early February 2015.