From elsewhere

From France, Pascal Orabi from LPO says:

I also have the pleasure to announce you first observations of the Egyptian vultures of migration in France (for the first ones: the 07/03/2013 in the department of Ardèche, 21 and 25/03/2013 in the department of the Drôme and 10/03/2013 in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône).

From Bulgaria, Stoyan Nicolov of the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds says:

We are happy to announce that the first Egyptian vultures for 2013 already
retuned in Bulgaria from their wintering grounds (on 17.3.2013 in Southern
part of the country and on 20.3.2013  - in the Northern part).

We wish them a successful breeding season!

From Yemen, Ibrahim Al Hasani of Birdlife says:

Hi, Many Egyptian vultures (tens) migrating northwards in the south western parts of Yemen, many aggregating on waste dump sites.

From Turkey, Can Bilgen from the Middle East Technical University says:

Merhaba,
    The first birds seem to have arrived at our study area about ten days ago.

Assamo's movements 18-27 March 2013

Assamo's movements during 18-27 March 2013.

As in the previous weeks, Assamo has moved widely, but within about 35 km of Tadjoura, where it was captured.  The pattern of visiting a variety of locations is continuing.  Some locations are visited quickly, at some Assamo spends some days, and some are revisited.  In other words, some days are characterized by movement, while others are characterized by more sedentary behavior.  In almost all cases, when we zoom in on locations, these are in the close vicinity of settlements or nomad camps.  By the end of this time period, Assamo was located back at the municipal dump site to the west of Tajoura, about 2 km from where he was captured

March 19, 2013: 3 hours at Ras Siyyan

Adult Egyptian vulture.  Photo by H. Rayaleh

On March 19, 2013, the sixth day of a birding tour that I organized for well known birders, and only ten days after the migration counts I made with Mike, Ali and Eleyeh at Ras Siyyan, on the Djibouti side of Bab el Mandeb strait, I traveled again to Ras Siyyan and made less than three hours (3) of  observations at one of the locations (VP2: 12°, 28.567'  43°, 19.075') on the volcanic cone used to monitor migration during our earlier effort.

Compared to our earlier trip, the weather conditions on March 19 were better.  Migration started after 0800, with the arrival of Egyptian Vultures flying very low over the lagoon mainly from the west. And from 0815 to 1030 we counted 459 EGVs, 900 Booted Eagles, 541 unidentified raptors (probably mostly EGVs and Booted Eagles; 1 Saker Falcon landed next to us followed by a Levant Sparrowhawk.

During that time it seemed to us that the volcanic cone was totally shaded by the large number of raptors flying above it, before they crossed the strait to Yemen. 

16-17 March 2013

Locations of Assamo near a settlement during 16-17 March 2013

If one zooms in on the locations visited by Assamo (see previous map), one can see that they are always near settlements or in wadis (presumably where they might roost or where food might be located).  Above is an example, and shows four locations from afternoon on 16 March through the morning of the 17th.  Note the buildings about 200 m north of the locations. 

Tracking "Assamo" in Djibouti

Movement of adult Egyptian vulture 11-17 March 2013.  Dates are dd/mm.

The map above is a summary of the movements made by Assamo (NOTE: Dates are in the form of dd/mm).  In actuality there were many more locations in clusters around the points shown on the map.  We removed most of the locations to make the map clearer, and labelled locations with the data or range of dates when the bird was there.  So, we can see that Assamo has moved around a lot, moving between locations within one day, and sometimes spending more than one day at a location.  Some locations were revisited.  During this time it had moved up to about 40 km away from the location where it was trapped at Tadjoura.  We know that the abattoir at Tadjoura is a reliable source of regular food, so maybe this bird has been discouraged from returning there because of the capture.  However, our observations seem to suggest that not all vultures that are near to Tadjoura visit the abattoir every day, so what we might be seeing in this map is just normal behavior.

Fitting Egyptian vulture with GPS satellite transmitter

After trapping the adult Egyptian vulture, we moved away from the abattoir and into the shade.  There we fitted the vulture with a 40 gram GPS-PTT using a backpack harness.  The transmitter is solar powered and so has a theoretical life of some years.  It is programmed to acquire 8 GPS locations per day and send data every 2.5 days. 

Fitting GPS transmitter to Egyptian vulture.

 We also fitted this bird with a numbered metal ring from our Bulgarian colleagues.  We weighed and measured it and took a bunch of photos before we released it!  Before releasing it, we gave it the name "Assamo".

Releasing Egyptian vulture wearing GPS transmitter.

Trapping Egyptian vulture at Tajoura, Djibouti

Tajoura is the provincial capital of the Tajoura region of Djibouti, and has about 25,000 inhabitants. It is located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Tajoura.  Every morning domestic animals are slaughtered at the seaside abattoir in Tajoura, and this attracts numbers of Egyptian vultures.  When we visited this site on 1 March about 60 vultures of all ages were present; when we visited on 11 March there were about 25 and on 12 March there were about 18.

Tajoura abattoir at about 0900 in the morning.  Egyptian vultures (of all ages), Indian house crows and domestic cats can be seen

 On 11 March, at about 0830 we trapped a single adult Egyptian vulture and fitted it with a GPS satellite-received radio transmitter, and a Bulgarian Society for Protection of Birds numbered metal ring..

Houssein with an adult Egyptian vulture.  Note vulture's crop is full of food after a morning at the abattoir.

.

Embarkation

After about 1000 in the morning the migration ceased to embark from Ras Siyyan toward Yemen, and migrants were seen moving south down the Djiboutian coast, some gaining elevation from the thermals that were no doubt gaining strength as the day warmed up.  By 1100 almost no migration was visible from Ras Siyyan, and we spent afternoons searching for the main migration path.  We searched to the south and to the west, speculating that the migration was building in the mountains to the west and no longer passing over Ras Siyyan. 

Looking for the migration. On this day we did not see any migration over these coastal plateaus.

It wasn't until 10 March, as we were leaving the field, that we located the migration over two plateaus about 25 km south of Ras Siyyan on the coast.  Surprisingly though, migrants flying over these plateaus were still heading south, away from Yemen.  So, despite our best efforts, we never did determine where or how migrating raptors left Djibouti.  We think that they may leave across a rather broad front, departing as individuals or groups when they attain enough elevation to make the crossing.  For some they drift rather far south before heading over the sea.  This supposition is bolstered (maybe) by the fact that the arrival of birds on the Yemen side of the straits does not appear to occur at a single location (H. and G. Welch pers.comm.).

Ali and Eleyeh looking north from atop one of the plateaus located about 25 km south of Ras Siyyan.

The Team

The 2013 Djibouti Egyptian Vulture Team

Our team included: Ahmed Hamadou (seated), (standing left to right) Houssein Rayaleh, Mike McGrady, Eleyeh Abdillahi and Ali Darrar.  Ahmed is a local Afar and served as our guide.  Hossein is the director of Djibouti Nature, a wildlife conservation NGO.  Mike is an avian ecologist with International Avian Research. Eleyeh is a volunteer and has received training on monitoring Egyptian vultures at a workshop in Ethiopia, supported by European funding and the Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds. Ali is a vice principal at a school in Atta, a town about 40 km west of Djibouti city.

Ras Siyyan: 2 - 10 March 2013

Ali and Mike monitoring the migration of raptors during spring at Ras Siyyan, Djibouti

During 2-10 March 2013 our team made observations of the migration of raptors at Ras Siyyan.  Ras Siyyan is a volcanic cone in Djibouti, and is the piece of Africa closest to Arabia.  Ras Siyyan and Pirim Island form the Bab el Mandeb Straits, which are a significant bottleneck for soaring birds migrating along the Rift Valley flyway, the second most important flyway in the world.

We counted a total of 4562 migrating raptors.  Many of those could not be identified because they were too far away.  Of the identifiable raptors (3290), over 53% were booted eagles (Aquila penata/Heiraatus pennatus) over 35% were Egyptian vultures (Neophron percnopterus).  Egyptian vulture is an endangered species, whose population has declined in recent decades due to a range of causes including accidental and targeted poisoning, persecution, electrocution and disturbance.  Unfortunately, its decline and the reasons for it are mirrored in other vulture species throughout much of Europe, Asian and Africa.

Apart from the migration being dominated by the two species, it was also interesting that we saw no (zero) Egyptian vultures that were < 3 yrs of age.  This observation supports the theory that immature Egyptian vultures that eventually breed in Europe and Asia, spend their immature years in Africa.

Almost all our observations of migrating birds were made in the morning before 1100.  Typically, migrants would start moving at about 0800, but by 1000 soaring groups were disappearing from view both southward and upward.  We spend some afternoons trying to locate the migration, and only did so on the last day, when we found a stream of eagles flying southward above coastal hills about 20 km south of Ras Siyyan.  Despite our efforts we never did locate a point of embarkation and we suspect that the raptors just gained height and perhaps crossed along a relatively broad front toward Yemen.

Ahmed Hamadou, our local guide, talking to local fishermen who could not go to sea due to the heavy winds.

The Djibouti Egyptian Vulture Project 2013

During 28 February - 14 March we studied the migration of soaring birds (mostly Egyptian vultures and booted eagles) migrating between Africa (Djibouti) and Arabia (Yemen) over the Bab el Mandeb Straits.  The photo above is of Ras Siyan; about 20 km beyond it across the straits is Yemen.  The purpose of the study was to better understand the composition and scale of migration across the straits, and we also aimed to capture an Egyptian vulture and fit it with a satellite radio transmitter and follow its movements.  The effort was funded from a variety of sources:  The EURAPMON/European Science Foundation, Mohammed Shobrak at Taif University in Saudi Arabia, the Milwaukee County Zoo, the African Bird Club and International Avian Research.  The satellite tracking is a collaborative study with Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.

This blog will detail the effort and regularly post maps of the movement of the tagged vulture.  We aim for the blog to become a platform for conservation education, and will aim to link with a Djiboutian school.  If this proof-of-concept effort is successful, we aim to expand it by conducting more field work during the migration times (autumn and spring) and fit more birds with satellite transmitters.  So, "follow" us, visit the blog often and ask questions or comment on the effort.  We will try to respond to any questions and do our part in discussing the work.  As Djibouti is Francophone, some postings may be made in French.  You need only click on the Google Translate button above to switch (imperfectly) between languages.