Dear friends, partners and supporters of the Northern Bald Ibis project
One of the most exciting and eventful seasons of our Northern Bald Ibis project is coming to an end. Of the many highlights, the greatest and most groundbreaking were the great cooperation with the colleagues from the Spanish Proyecto Eremita and the first successful migration to Andalusia.
Plenty of reasons for hope:Juvenile bird Fiete in Andalusia
On December 2nd, we received news from Miguel Angel Quevedo Muñoz from our Spanish partner project Proyecto Eremita that a juvenile Northern Bald Ibis with rings from our project had been spotted south of Cádiz.
BBC Planet Earth III: Sir David Attenborough is presenting Katharina Huchler from our LIFE Northern Bald Ibis project as a conservation hero
Tomorrow, Sunday December 9th 2023, a new BBC Planet Earth III episode has its premiere. Sir David Attenborough is introducing conservation heroes fighting to save the world’s wildlife, from exploring remote jungles to going undercover to catch criminals in the illegal ivory trade.
At the last opportunity: Unexpected Alpine crossings in Salzburg and Switzerland
The trend towards an increasingly later start of the autumn migration continues in 2023. Until November 24th, the majority of the Northern Bald Ibises from the three breeding colonies of Burghausen, Kuchl and Überlingen were still on the northern foothills of the Alps.
32 juvenile Northern Bald Ibises in Sweden, Denmark and northern Germany
As reported two weeks ago (see newsletter: Young birds flying to northern Germany and Sweden), a large group of Northern Bald Ibises set off northwards from Salzburg on October 28th. After the only two experienced, sub-adult birds and another juvenile bird flew back after just one day, only inexperienced juvenile birds, 31 in total, are still travelling in Northern Europe.
Young birds flying to northern Germany and Sweden
A group of young birds from the two breeding colonies of Kuchl in the state of Salzburg and Burghausen in Bavaria are currently showing a very unusual but also impressive flight behavior.
First electricity pylons in Hochburg-Ach secured against electrocution
Electrocution continues to be one of the most common causes of death in the reintroduced Northern Bald Ibis population. Most recently, four Northern Bald Ibises from the Burghausen colony died in July on a pylon in Tarsdorf (Upper Austria)
We made it: We have arrived at our destination
A journey of 2.320 kilometres lies behind us. We were on the move for 43 days, flew 19 stages with an average lenght of 120 kilometres, and the flight team spent about 50 hours in the air together with the birds. Finally, we arrived with 32 juvenile Northern Bald Ibises, three birds were lost during the flights in Spain
Positive interim balance of the first human-led migration to Andalusia
35 juvenile birds, 2 aircraft, 3 countries, 14 flight stages and 1.620 kilometres of flight – that is the positive interim balance of the human-led migration Baden-Württemberg to Barbate and Vejer de la Frontera in Andalusia.
Human-led migration 2023: Past Barcelona
The past week was turbulent but also very successful. Successful because we were able to continue migrating on five out of seven days, whereby we flew the final three days without any break days in between.