vagrancy in a sat-tagged Saker

[Alex Lees]

A satellite-tagged Hungarian Saker (http://rarebirdspain.blogspot.com/2009/08/satellite-tracked-hungarian-saker-falco.html)is currently at large in Spain. The implications for long-range vagrancy are self-evident!

cheers

Alex

[Johnny X]

Cool as!

I note that the latest map update has it as far west as Valladolid and going for the portuguese border like a good un!

[Colin Key]

Saw this flagged earlier today Alex on "WestPalBirds" - I think that there is more recent info (but can't find it just now) from Andy Paterson as to the last position of the bird. Apparently now close to the Portuguese border, so we are all waiting and watching.

Colin

[Colin Key]

Having just seen the recent position of this bird (Burgos, N Spain), and now beginning to experience the southward movement of a few Black Kite (the earliest migrating raptors) here in Portugal, I would predict that this bird will get caught up in the mass migration of raptors from N and C Europe which travel down the west coast of Iberia to Cabo de São Vicente before drifting east to Tarrifa for the "final jump".

I hope!! :twitcy:

Colin

[Brian S]

Colin

I hope it turns up for you....:beer:

Brian S

[Colin Key]

....... and that you are sober enough to ID it....:beer:

Brian S


I find this comment a bit "iffy", unless I have interpreted incorrectly :err:.

[Brian S]

I find this comment a bit "iffy", unless I have interpreted incorrectly :err:.

Colin

No offence meant, it's just in a lot of your posts you end them with the drinking man......I will edit is anyway..

Brian S

[Greenie]

Hi all, is there an accepted record of a wild Saker ever in the UK ? as I suppose with the movement out of this one it must now be at least possible

[Colin Key]

Colin

No offence meant, it's just in a lot of your posts you end them with the drinking man......I will edit is anyway..

Brian S

Brian,

At this stage in my life I am probably incapable of being offended!

I don't think I use the "drinking man" smiley that often, more often than not it is the "real mad" smiley. The fact that I drink two bottles of wine a day, a litre bottle of (....) beer, a nice strong G&T before dinner, and finish off with a couple of large "malts" is neither here nor there :beer::beer::beer::laugh:

Yesterday, Thursday the 14th, I saw four Saker Falcons and two Harris Hawks, but no Pink Elephants. The raptors were free-flying and I had very good close-up views of them perched on the perimeter fence at Faro airport. I had a long chat with the Spanish guy who is the chief falconer at Faro who said that the Harris Hawks were much more effective than the Sakers.

Pity I didn't have the camera with me - I could have indulged in a bit of "mischief" in Photoshop by removing the jesses and adding a satellite transmitter :biggrin:

Colin :smile:

[michael23]

Perhaps it could work its way towads The Scilly Isles, in october preferably....:smile:



Hi all, is there an accepted record of a wild Saker ever in the UK ? as I suppose with the movement out of this one it must now be at least possible

[MichaelF]

Any updates on where it is now?

[Johnny X]

I see the map has been updated to 14 August, and to that point it had spent about a week kicking around NW of Valladolid, about 70 km shy of the Portugeezer's borders at it's nearest approach.

[Motmot]

A few pics of the Saker in Castilla-León can be seen here:

http://birdingspain.blogspot.com/

[Colin Key]

Posted this morning on Portuguese "Yahoo Raridades", the Saker has finally ventured into northern Portugal:


Hi all,

Piros, the Hungarian Saker (Falco cherrug) being followed by telemetry
finally made it to Portugal (see map in
http://www.sakerlife.mme.hu/hu/gmap and then select Piros(2009)) .
Apparently it passed close to serra da Estrela. Data was already sent
to the CPR.
There are no previous records of this species for Portugal.
More about the story of this bird in Spain in:
http://www.rarebirdspain.net/arbsr000.htm
and:
http://birdingspain.blogspot.com/2009/08/novedadeshalcon-sacre-en-castilla. html
Good luck with finding this amazing bird!

All the best
Rafael Matias

[michael23]

do you stand a good chance of seeing it colin?

[Colin Key]

do you stand a good chance of seeing it colin?

Well, it appears to have only made an excursion into northern Portugal in the Serra da Estrella region (mountainous region and very difficult to cover, and a seven or eight hour drive from here) and then returned to Spain.

If, as I predicted earlier, this bird gets caught up in the southerly raptor migration (many birds from northern and central Europe follow a route down the west coast of Iberia to Cabo de São Vicente and then drift along the coast to Tarifa before the final jump across to Africa) then we might get it in the western Algarve. Finding it amongst the tens of thousands of other raptors would be difficult unless the transmitter keeps working and they update the map more frequently. It would be nice to get photos of this bird which is a first for Portugal.

Colin

[MichaelF]

Not the first case of a bird added to a national list without being seen - Greater Spotted Eagle was added to the Tanzania and Zambia lists from a satellite-tagged bird from Poland, but no-one managed to see it there due to the inaccessibility of the location:
http://www.raptor-research.de/pdfs/a_sp100p/a_sp115.pdf (pdf file)

[Colin Key]

Not the first case of a bird added to a national list without being seen - Greater Spotted Eagle was added to the Tanzania and Zambia lists from a satellite-tagged bird from Poland, but no-one managed to see it there due to the inaccessibility of the location:
http://www.raptor-research.de/pdfs/a_sp100p/a_sp115.pdf (pdf file)

This could raise a quite complex issue. I have read recently about research on producing much smaller and lighter transmitters with the intention of attaching these to smaller species.

Think about the hypothetical (but possible) situation of a common, large predator eating a smaller bird complete with transmitter which continues to operate whilst in the predator's gut :err:.

Obviously in the case of the Saker it has definitely strayed into Portuguese territory, but I wonder what the CPR's (Portuguese Rarities Committee) stance will be on accepting an "unseen" bird?

Colin

*P.S. Thanks for that PDF link to "African Birds & Birding" Michael - I don't usually read links to what I would call "heavy" ornithological references, but that article was very interesting. I wonder how often the poor old Eagle Owl is dragged into service as "bait"?

[MichaelF]

Think about the hypothetical (but possible) situation of a common, large predator eating a smaller bird complete with transmitter which continues to operate whilst in the predator's gutNo problem, the transmitter wouldn't work through the predator's body. Sometimes they don't work just because the bird carrying it preens some feathers over the aerial, that alone is enough to disrupt the signal and give a weak, uncertain reading.
I wonder what the CPR's (Portuguese Rarities Committee) stance will be on accepting an "unseen" bird?The precedent has been set by the records committees of Tanzania and Zambia! No doubt they can ask the bird's tagger for photos of it when it was caught.
I wonder how often the poor old Eagle Owl is dragged into service as "bait"?No idea, but it should be OK, it is surrounded by nets to catch the mobbing raptor, so the raptor won't get near it. Eagle Owls must be used to getting mobbed anyway!

[ed keeble]

now heading for Africa-

http://www.sakerlife.mme.hu/hu/gmap

[Johnny X]

Go Piros Go!!!

I guess he may yet end up in the Western Niger/Nigeria border area and meet up with some pals such as Viera who was down there last year...

Fascinating study this and great use of Google Maps to share it with a wide audience!

[Colin Key]

Saw this earlier today and was quite surprised - this is a very direct route to Tarifa and not one which I had predicted (I thought that this bird might get caught up in the 'normal' migration of northern raptors down the western coast of Iberia).

My recent visits to Cabo de São Vicente, the Portuguese "hot-spot" for autumn raptor migration, have proved very disappointing. Maybe there is an urgency to get to "The Straights" for some reason?

Colin :err:

[Brian S]

Well, Piros has now reached Africa, entering on 19th or 20th, then tracked SW through Morocco and Western Sahara, and is now at the cape at Ras Nouadhibou. A truly amazing journey, but where next?

Brian S

[CAU]

Maybe slightly off-topic, but here you can follow the paths of a Greater Spotted Eagle that was satellite tagged as a chick in Estonia in 2008:
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/taxonomy/term/19
It spent last summer in Finland, and has now reached its wintering grounds in Spain (roughly the same area where it spent last winter), having already visited 11 European countries.

[Colin Key]

Posted yesterday on Fórum Aves:


Dear All

I had a sad news. After arriving at Mauritania (see maps) and being on a peninsula for a while, Piros' transmitter stopped working. The latest message was on 7th October without coordinates. There were only some error messages indicating that the GPS unit of the transmitter tried to locate the itself but it was timed out before succeeding. That can be for a number of reasons starting from the transmitter has become broken to the death of Piros (and the transmitter started to get covered by sand/water). I do not know.

Another interesting fact, that I have a data from a French literature about a juvenile Saker found dead in the water of Star Bay in Mauritania. When I first read it, I was doubting. However, the site is only a few kilometres away from the place where Piros disappeared and she crossed the same bay when she arrived in the area. Very interesting co-incidence and now I can believe that Sakers may visit the area.

Anyhow, this was only a short note to inform you about the latest and sad news. (Nevertheless, if you have anyone in the region who could check the site, please, advise me.)

Thank you again for your kind help earlier!

Best regards

Matyas

www.vandorsolymok.hu
www.kerecsensolyom.mme.hu
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[MichaelF]

Sad to hear. Let's hope it's a battery failure, not a bird failure.

[Colin Key]

A post today on Rare Birds Spain says that the body of Piros has been found and the transmitter recovered. Apparently it is not the first Saker to be found dead at this locality:

http://rarebirdspain.blogspot.com/2009/11/and-piros-died-out-of-wp-y-piros-murio.html

Colin

[Johnny X]

A sad end to a heroic journey...

[MichaelF]

At least it was probably natural, not some **** with a gun.

[Colin Key]

Posted today:

http://europeanraptors.org/interviews/interview_saker_falcon_hungary_matyas_prommer.html

Colin