Satellite-tracked juvenile Peregrines
Birdlife Hungary (MME) deployed 4 (22g) solar Argos/GPS PTTs on juvenile Peregrines in Hungary. We have decided to track only females since they are larger thus they can carry the PTTs more easily.
3 out of 4 have already fledged - they are still around the nest. However, tagging was not without complication. We tried to arrive at the nest when the chicks were about 30 days old. Two people descended/climbed up to the nests in each case trying to move slowly and we had a net as well. Despite all our efforts the young Peregrines jumped off in two cases. Luckily enough those jumped off were already flying well or we could collect them from under the cliff.
In one case, PTT stopped working right after deployment. We suspect that the reason is predation, most likely by fox.
So the three juveniles are flying around, and we hope that the bad weather for days now in Hungary will not cause any problem. The movements of the Peregrines can be followed later (after they have left the nest area) here: www.madarvilag.hu
Until the maps of Peregrines will be available online, you should check out the maps of our Sakers! As you may know, our Saker tracking project is officially closing this year, we have deployed the last 10 (out of 40) in Hungary this year. Our Slovak colleagues have also tagged 6 Sakers in the last two years. They had a very lucky hand when choosing the birds: Viera (juvenile female)crossed the Mediterranean Sea between Montenegro and Libya (1100 km) during 24 hrs and finally spent the winter in Niger. She was the first Saker proving that they may can fly so far south for winter. Sakers can be followed here:
www.sakerlife.mme.hu (sakers with satellite tags).
In addition we have further exciting tracking projects on the horizon:
- Soon we start to deploy 8 of the latest 5g solar Argos PTTs on Red-footed Falcons in Hungary (we do not know at all on which part of Africa they winter);
- In August we deploy 2 PTTs on Griffon Vultures in Croatia
- In the autumn we plan to trap an tag an adult female Peregrine that winter in southern part in Hungary for years (it is especially interesting because we have quite a lot of wintering Peregrines here and we are just guessing where they are coming from).
All birds can be followed later on www.madarvilag.hu and you are welcome to join us to learn more about those unbelievable journeys of our birds!
Hereby I also would like to say thank you to those helped us a lot at the start: Tom Maechtle and Bud Anderson from the Falcon Research Group, Mike McGrady from Natural Research and last but not least to Paul Howey and the team of Microwave Telemetry Inc.
Matyas Prommer