Assamo: 1-17 December 2013.

On 21 November Assamo moved back from the Ethiopian town of Adigala to northern Djibouti.  See last post.  He has moved around Obock and in the vicinity of Tadjoura (interestingly we have not yet recorded him revisiting the abattoir were he was first captured).  Surprisingly, on 16 December Assamo returned to Adigala.

Also, on 30 November there were two interesting locations over the sea about 5 km from land. Vultures are soaring birds and in general avoid flying over large areas of open water because these places normally do not have strong thermal updrafts.  Also, this is not migration time.

Assamo's movements during late November - early December.  The southerly cluster of locations is around Adigala.

Assamo back in Djibouti

Early on 20 November Assamo was still hanging around Adigala, where he has been since the beginning of July (almost 5 months...look at earlier posts).  However, he started to move on that day and in the evening roosted about 20 km NW of the Djiboutian town of Ali Sabieh.  On 21 November Assamo left his roost early and by 0930 was already at a location about 15 km NE of Tadjoura (where he was caught back in March).  He has stayed in that area since, and on 29 November was located about 30 km NW of Obock. Interestingly, since moving into Djibouti, he seems now to be moving around amongst small settlements, rather than focusing on a larger population center like Adigala.

Assamo moves back to Djibouti, late November 2013.

Just as Assamo has left Ethiopia, another has arrived from Bulgaria.  Have a look at the the movements of Svetlina.

Finally, some more bad news about poisoning of vultures in southern Africa:  https://www.facebook.com/andre.botha3/posts/10151763127104080:0