We haven't posted much about the Egyptian vultures we are tracking in Djibouti lately. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the birds fitted with GSM tags (Mabla (216), Goda (217), Doda (218) and Loyada (219) are moving in and out of the GSM network, so we can have gaps. We then wait, and wait, hoping they will turn up. We last heard Mabla on 20 July, Goda on 22 July, Doda on 16 August, and Loyada on 22 August. On those respective dates, all seemed to be doing fine. Below is a map of last locations of those birds, as of 26 August.
Last locations of Mabla (red), Goda (green), Doda (blue) and Loyada (yellow).
The second reason for not posting is that most of the birds appear to have held territories over the summer, and so did not make big movements. Although their movements are interesting to us, they are quite repititious, and may not be interesting to everyone. Below is a map of a vulture being tracked using the Argos system of satellites. These have the advantage of being able to upload data from anywhere, and are not dependent on the GSM network. This map covers the entire tracking period. The bird mostly stayed near its apparent territory, but made excursions out to Tadjoure, and one long excursion (for some unknown reason) to Eritrea on 3 May.
