Lots of News - part 1

by M. McGrady, B.-U. Meyburg, F. Al Lamki & A. Spalton

We've been a bit quiet recently, but that is not because nothing has been happening.  We'll try to catch up in the coming days...

The BIG news is that two of the Steppe eagles that we tagged last January in Salalah have returned, and one is about 100 km away at the moment (See map below).  This was somewhat of a surprise because the two Steppe eagles we captured near Muscat in January 2017 spent the subsequent two winters near rubbish dumps in Saudi Arabia.  The behaviour of those birds suggested to us that perhaps the birds that winter in Oman settle there because they are a bit "lost".  However, fidelity to wintering areas (i.e. returning to the same place) is not uncommon for many bird of prey species, so that these birds eventually returned to Salalah is not completely surprising.  Maybe eagles near Muscat are "off course", but Salalah is a more regular wintering site.  Maybe we'll see in the coming years.  At Salalah Steppe eagles are, by far, the most common wintering raptor; near Muscat, Egyptian vultures (apparently mostly resident birds) are the most common raptor species using the landfill there.

Movements of three Steppe eagles (186, 187, 182711) during 1 September - 12 October 2019.

More on migration

by A. Spalton, B. Meyburg, F. Al Lamki, M, McGrady

The Steppe eagles continue thier migration. At the moment we have recieved information about thee that are underway. We'll have to wait to hear from the others. 

182711 is making steady progress, and is currently near Basra.  We'll have to wait to see whether it ends up in Salalah again. 

Movements of a Steppe eagle (182711) during 4-11 September 2019.

Steppe eagle 187 has also migrated as far as Esfahan, Iran, where it has been for the past two days, apparently at a waste disposal site. 

Locations of  a Steppe eagle during 9-11 September 2019.

187 has started to migrate

by M. McGrady, F. Al Lamki, B.-U. Meyburg and A. Spalton

Steppe eagle fitted with tag number 187 has started to move.  It seems to have initiated migration on 31 August.  This is an adult male bird, and althought it was settled during most of the summer, it also made very big excursions, especially during late spring.  During most of the summer it was located in an area about 30 km north of the Kazakhstan village of Karaoy, 160 km SE of Aktobe.  As of 7 September it was located about 25 km north of Khur, Iran.

Bon voyage!

In seems that migration has started in earnest, so visit this blog regularly to keep up to date.  We hope to be hearing about other migrants soon.

Movements of a Steppe eagle (187)during 1 August-7September 2019

Migration has started

by F. Al Lamki, A. Spalton, B. -U. Meyburg. M. McGrady

Migration has started, at least for one of the Steppe eagles (185) we tagged earlier this year in Salalah.  Others may have started, and indeed some seem to be wandering during the late summer (mostly in Kazakhstan), but none have made a concerted push towards the wintering areas yet. 

185 is a female that was in its third year when we caught it.  It seems like she bred about 40 km east of the town of Embi, Kazakhstan because she stayed in a rather restricted area during 15 March -2 September.  On 2 September it started to migrate, but instead of returning along its spring migration route towards Arabia, it has flown north of the Caspian Sea and is currently about 100 km west of Astrakhan, Russia.

The movements during Jan-August 2019 of a third year Steppe eagle (185) tagged in Salalah.

Summering area used by a Steppe eagle (185) during 2019.

Zoomed in view of the summer home range of Steppe eagle 185.  It spent almost the entire summer within a radius of about 2.5 km.

Movements of Steppe eagle 185 since leaving its summer home range in 2019.  In the 3 days since starting migration, it has covered about 1000 km.

Movements of a Steppe eagle during January - June 2019

by M. McGrady, F. Al Lamki, B.-U. Meyburg and A. Spalton

The annual movements of the Steppe eagles and other migratory birds never ceases to amaze.  Below is a map of a three year old female eagle (182712) since it was caught in January 2019 at Raysut, Oman.  Seemingly this bird was not a breeder in this year, rather it has wandered around central Kazakhstan.

Movments of a third calendar year, female Steppe eagle during January - June 2019.

182 has shown up

by F. Al Lamki, A. Spalton, M. McGrady and B. Meyburg

A Steppe eagle that was hatched in 2018, and fitted with GPS transmitter 182 on 15 January at Raysut, Oman was heard on 13 June.  It was last heard on 20 May.  After capture, this bird moved to western Yemen and stayed there for some weeks before starting migration in earnest.  Look back at the blog post on 29 March.

As a young bird, we do not expect this bird to settle into a breeding territory.  It will most likely wander somewhat, although could dwell in areas of sufficient food and an absence of territorial eagles to move it along.  This seems to be what it has been doing since 1 May.  The map below is of its movements since 1 May, and one can see that at times the eagle is on the move and at other times, the pace of that movement is slower.

Movements of a second year Steppe eagle during 1 May-14 June 2019.

184 has turned up.

by B. Meyburg, F. Al Lamki, A Spalton, and M. McGrady

184, a Steppe Eagle that was fitted with a transmitter at Raysut, near Salalah on 15 January 2019, showed up (9 June).  We had not heard from this bird since early May.  This illustrates a constraint of the GPS-GSM tags in that birds can be located in holes in the GSM coverage and be unable to transmit GPS locations.  During the time it was missing, 184 moved in somewhat of a compressed loop, covering about 600 km.  184 is 2 years old, so we don't really expect it to be breeding, and so its wandering doesn't really surprise us.  184 was the only eagle tracked by us that appeared to make an attempt to cross the Strait of Hormuz (Look back at our March 9 and 20 blog posts).

Currently, at least three of the tagged birds we are following seem to be in such "holes".  We hope this is the case because, in due course, when they start migrating, we should hear from them and they should be able to dump the GPS locations stored onboard the tag.  The alternatives are that they are dead, have dropped their tags or their tags have failed for one reason or another.

Movements of a 2 yr old Steppe eagle during 1 May-9 June 2019.