Circaetus gallicus information navigator

The Batumi Raptor Count monitors the autumn migration of more than 1 million raptors including thousands of ST Eagles along the eastern Black Sea coast in Georgia at the Batumi bottleneck /map/.

• Wouter M.G. VANSTEELANT, Jasper WEHRMANN, Dries ENGELEN, Johannes JANSEN, Brecht VERHELST, Rafa BENJUMEA, Simon CAVAILLÈS, Triin KAASIKU, Bart HOEKSTRA & Folkert de BOER, 2019 – Accounting for differential migration strategies between age groups to monitor raptor population dynamics in the eastern Black Sea flyway // Ibis. doi:10.1111/ibi.12773 – (En).

Also, other publications are available at the BRC site.

Egidio is an adult Short-toed Eagle male tagged with a satellite transmitter being a chick in the Regional Park Gallipoli Cognato /map/ in 2013. He successfully bred in 2019 and had his own fledgling. The juvenile Short-toed has been tagged with a transmitter as well and named Michele after late Michele Panuccio. The tracker was installed at the end of July by Michele’s friends, members of the Mediterranean Raptor Migration Network: Ugo Mellone, Nicolantonio Agostini, Giuseppe Lucia and Vicente Urios (MEDRAPTORS.org, MEDRAPTORS Facebook).

Current tracks of both the eagles are available on the project page.

Please read the obituary for Michele Panuccio:

• Nicolantonio AGOSTINI and Ugo MELLONE, 2019 – Obituary – Michele Panuccio, 1976-2019 // Avocetta, 43 (1): pp. 95-96. – (En).

A juvenile Short-toed Eagle was released after a month spent in the Rehabilitation Centre «Вільні Крила» (Free Wings) at the vicinity of Lviv /map/ (Western Ukraine) at the end of September. For the last week, that eagle named Java has covered 330 km and reached Romania. The young short-toed tries to stick to areas potentially rich in snakes, such as numerous river floodplains. You can follow the eagle on the map of its migration which is daily updated. That bird had been contused about two weeks after leaving the nest. Viktor Shelvinskyi and Pavlo Kruchok provided the best conditions to recover young Short-toed Eagle as quickly as possible. An installation of the Ecotone GPS-GSM transmitter was provided by Andrew Simon as a part of the project on Greater Spotted and Short-toed Snake Eagles in Northern Ukraine launched this year.

Henry de Lestanville describes in his paper staying of 2 Short-toed Eagles at Brassoir in summer 2016 and the current status of the species in Picardy /map/:

• Henry DE LESTANVILLE, 2018 – Stationnement de deux Circaètes Jean-le-blanc Circaetus gallicus à Brassoir en 2016 [Staying of two Short-toed Eagles at Brassoir in 2016] // Avocette, 42 (1) – Revue naturaliste de Picardie Nature: pp. 3-8. – (Fr).

An impressive number of ST Eagles migrating at Sarimazi, Southern Turkey /map/, in autumn 2018 is reported on the Egyptian Vulture New LIFE site: 10853. This raises a lot of questions about real strength of their streams from Eastern Europe. Many thanks to Gábor Papp for sharing!

Articles of Bernd-Ulrich and Christiane Meyburgs dedicated to the satellite telemetry of migrating Short-toed Eagles (source – website of Bernd-U. and Christiane Meyburg – Raptor Research):

• Meyburg, B.-U., & C. Meyburg, 1999 – NASA-Satelliten im Dienste der Vogelforschung: Mit dem Schlangenadler nach Westafrika // Der Falke, 46: 164-177. – (De).

• Bernd-U. Meyburg, Christiane Meyburg & Jean-Claude Barbraud, 1998 – Migration strategies of an adult Short-toed Eagle tracked by satellite // Alauda, 66 (1): 39-48. – (En).

Sergey Domashevsky’s article about Short-toed Eagle population of Kiev Region (Ukraine) /map/:

• С. В. Домашевский, 2005 – Распространение, численность и миграции змееяда (Circaetus gallicus) в Киевской области [Distribution, numbers and migrations of the Short-toed Eagle in Kiev Region] // Заповідна справа в Україні, 11 (1): 45-49. (Ru).

Its summary (En) and illustrations:

Some photos of Kiev Region’s Short-toed Eagles and their breeding places:

And a water-colour painting of flying Short-toed Eagle made by an artist Igor Zemlyanskih: