For much of late April Assamo was mostly in a very limited area (within 1 km sq) just off the main Tajoura-Obock road in an Acacia-wooded wadi, making a few trips into Tadjoura and visiting the abbatoir there. Although his movements were restricted to a small area, the Google satellite images did not show any obvious nearby cliffs where Assamo could nest.
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| Map showing concentration of locations along the Tadjoura - Obock road in northern Djibouti, late April 2014. |
Just when we thought Assamo had settled back into a life in northern Djibouti around Tadjoura, on 1 May he moved back down to Adigala in Ethiopia. Assamo was last in Adigala around 30 December 2013. During the second half on 2013 Assamo spent much time in the vicinity of Adigala, but also moved between there and northern Djibouti at least twice (See earlier posts).
I guess that we can safely say that Assamo is not going to breed this spring and is not going to migrate. This does not sound exciting, but really it is because the group of vultures (or any birds) that we know least about is the non-breeders. In a species like Egyptian vulture, which matures only over a number of years, lack of information on this group undermines long-term conservation.
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| Assam's movements during late April 2014. The locations in to the SW are near the town of Adigala |
