Finally!

by M. McGrady, A. Spalton, F. AlLamki, B. Meyburg

It took a while, but 183 seems to have finally started its migration.  Just to remind you, 183 is a 5 yr old Steppe eagle that we caught in Salalah, Oman in January 2019.  It spent the summer of 2019 in western Kazakhstan, then during winter of 2019-20 settled at a rubbish dump in central Saudi Arabia.  The rather large number of tagged eagles that either wintered at that rubbish dump or passed through lead us to visit the site.  What we found was the largest winter aggregation of Steppe eagles in the world... between 4.5 and 9% of the total world population.  You can read about that site in the free issue of Sandgrouse (click here), the journal of the Ornithological Society of the Middle East. 

183 is the last of the Steppe eagles we are tracking to start migration this spring. Some are already on the summering locatons.  More about that later...  Below is a map of the movements of 183 since 1 December 2019.  Bon voyage!

Movements of a 5 yr old Steppe eagle that wintered near Shaqrah, Saudi Arabia during 2019-20.

Steppe eagle migration has started

by M. McGrady, A. Spalton, F. AlLamki, B. Meyburg

Steppe eagle migration has started, at least for some of the individuals that we are tracking.  In fact, it started some time ago, with the first tracked bird (186) making its move away from its wintering area in Dhofar, Oman on 21 February.  186 is now almost to the border between Iran and Turkmenistan. (See map).  

Migration of Steppe eagle 186 during 1 Feb - 3 March 2020.

Other birds have not moved from their wintering areas (183, See map below), and still others (182, map below) have moved away from areas used for most of the winter, but settled into new sites, and not started migrating in earnest. 

Movement of Steppe eagle 183 during 1 Dec - 5 March 2020.

Movementss of Steppe eagle 182 during  1 Jan - 5 March 2020.

Reports from Kuwait are that many Steppe eagles are being seen in the desert west and north of the city, and that the numbers at the dumpsites in central Saudi Arabia and Dhofar, Oman are declining. You may recall that the dumpsite in central Saudi Arabia was used by more than 6000 Steppe eagles over the winter (see Nov 22 2019 blog post), including 182 and 183. Recently about 700-900 eagles were there. Those birds that have yet to leave seem to be mostly non-adults (P. Roberts pers. comm.).  Numbers in Dhofar have also gone down.