Both Steppe eagles on migration

I'd been waiting to have more information on the eagle movements before blogging, and now almost a month has past.

Steppe eagle 105 spent the early part of the month on the border between Iran and Iraq (see previous blog post).  On about 8 March it started to migrate, but apparently because of lack of GSM network, it did not upload data.  The next time we heard from it was on 20 March, and by that time it was in Turkmenistan.  During 20-22 March it continued northward into Uzbekistan, and we received our last location south of the Aral Sea near Muynak.  Since then it has probably gone into another GSM hole and we have not heard from it.  Nor has it had a chance to upload the data from the trip between Iraq and Turkmenistan.  The map below shows the data we have to date.

Movements of Steppe eagle 139 during March 2018.

Steppe eagle 162312 finally made a move, too.  On 27 March it left the area of central Saudi Arabia, where it had spent the winter of 2017-18, and started on migration.  By 29 September it had already reached southern Iran, about 30 km west of the town of Shush (See map below)>.

The movements of Steppe eagle 162312 as it starts on its spring migration.

Steppe eagle migration has started

On 17 February one of the Steppe eagles (105) we have been tracking for just over a year left its wintering area in SW Saudi Arabia and started on migration.  In doing so, it leap frogged over the other Steppe eagle we are tracking, which is still at its wintering location in central Saudi Arabia.  105 arrived on its wintering area (which included a rubbish dump) in mid October, so spent about four months there (if you want to look back at what that bird did over the winter, you'll have to visit https://egyptianvultureoman.blogspot.co.at.  Since leaving its wintering area, it has travelled about 1600 km.  Currently it is in southern Iraq on the border with Iran.  It is quite close to the Iranian town of Abadan.

I guess that the other Steppe eagle will start moving soon, so revisit this site to keep up with the progress of both.

Steppe eagle 105 (red) started its migration on 16 February.  162312 (blue) has yet to start migrating.