This year, 19 Eastern Imperial Eagles fledged successfully in Bulgaria. This is one less than 2009. 2 birds were stolen by poachers before fledging successfully.
In the European part of Turkey, 25 young fledged successfully.
In both Turkey and Bulgaria there were losses due to storms during the summer.
A new and very interesting paper about the hybridization between the Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga and the Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina in Europe has recently been published and made available for download on the website by Bernd Ulrich Meyburg:
Väli, Ü., V. Dombrovski, R. Treinys, U. Bergmanis, S. J. Daróczi, M. Dravecky, V. Ivanovski, J. Lontkowski, G. Maciorowski, B.-U. Meyburg, T. Mizera, R. Zeitz & H. Ellegren 2010: Widespread hybridization between the Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga and the Lesser Spotted Eagle Aquila pomarina (Aves: Accipitriformes) in Europe. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 100: 725-736.
The reintroduction program for the Cinereous Vulture in the Pyrenees has reached an important milestone. The first chick that hatched in the wild since the reintroduction program began is about the to leave the nest.
The juvenile vulture is a female and called “Gala”. With about 110 days old, the young bird will leave the nest very soon. It was fitted with a satellite transmitter to learn more about it’s movements. This also would help in the case of the bird dying, for example from poisoning or shooting. Hopefully this will not happen and the young female can breed herself in a few years.
This project is very important for the conservation of Europe’s largest raptors.
The BSPB has put satellite transmitters on 5 more Bulgarian Eastern Imperial Eagles. This is part of the EU fundet LIFE+ project “Save the raptors”.
Last year, 7 birds were fitted with transmitters. Satellite transmitters are a great way to learn about the mortality of eagles. From those seven birds, 2 are still alive today and in Bulgaria. The other 5 died because of electrocution, poisoning or were shot by a poacher. Without satellite transmitters, it would have been very hard to find this out.
Only when the reasons of death are known for the birds, can be something done against it. For example here the power lines where the birds died can be made safe or a campaign against poisoning can be started.
This year 23 young Eastern Imperial Eagles hatched in Bulgaria. There is hope for a few more chicks because of replacement clutches for some pairs.
According to the BSPB, for Bulgaria this means 1.4 chicks for a breeding pair in Bulgaria in 2010.
This year, only 16 pairs breed. In 2009 there were 18 pairs breeding. This may be due to an increased mortality in winter and early in the breeding season.
A 3,500 km cycling tour from Naardermeer Lake (the Netherlands) to the Sakar Mountain and the Black Sea coast has started to promote European nature conservation.
The tour was started on April 23rd, 2010 and was planned to finish on June 10th-11th.
The trip started in the Netherlands at the lake Naardermeer, which is one of the oldest nature reserves in the Netherlands and ends at the Sakar mountain range in south-eastern Bulgaria which is a stronghold for endangered species like the Saker Falcon and the Eastern Imperial Eagle.
SEO/Birdlife Spain has recently published the results from census of Golden Eagles, Egyptian Vultures, Osprey, Griffon Vultures and Peregrine Falcons in Spain in 2008.
To gather all those date, a huge effort by many people was needed. SEO publishes all the results in free e-books (in PDF format).
Click on the cover of each PDF to download it.
The new results are very interesting. For example, for the Golden Eagle, the census found 1,553 definite pairs and 216 likely pairs which gives a Spanish population of 1,769 pairs. This makes Spain very important for the conservation of the Golden Eagle in Europe.
Here is a great video available on youtube about lead poisoning in raptors and also the negative effect lead can have on human health. Lead poisoning is a major threat to many raptors, not only the North American species shown in the video. Many European raptors like Golden Eagles, Bearded Vultures, White-tailed Eagles and many others are affected by this threat.
The Montagu’s Harrier is one of the most elegant raptors in Europe. In many places it is threatened by habitat loss and the intensification in agriculture. In this interview Dominik Krupinski talks about the current situation in Poland. He explains the current population status, the threats to the species, research programs and what is done for the Montagu’s Harrier’s conservation. He also gives a short overview of the status of the other European harrier species in Poland.
Last week, three dead Golden Eagles, one Common Buzzard and one Eurasian Sparrowhawk were found on an estate in Scotland. The bodies have been sent for toxicology analysis at the government laboratory in Edinburgh.
Poisoning is the most likely cause for the death of those raptors. To quote the Raptor Persecution Scotland blog:
“Now, unless those THREE golden eagles all died of old age at the same time on the same estate, and the buzzard and sparrowhawk died of a heart attack at seeing the dead eagles, I think it’s fair to assume that the toxicology results will prove to be positive and that these eagles, the buzzard and sparrowhawk have been illegally killed by someone with access to poison”.
