Migration monitoring through new technologies

LATEST LOCATIONS

- "Urdaibai" Woodcock:  see tracking description

- "Aranzadi" Woodcock: see tracking description

The bird studies carried out through the traditional methods allow to know the movements of the birds when they can be watched, detected or captured, however a lot of their activities happen in places difficult to access or during the night and they cannot be monitored. Moreover, questions like migration travels are a lot more known in places of Europe than in other ones that are less studied.

For this reason, the development of tracking technologies through geolocators, satellites and their complementation with mobile phone technology or other mechanisms, and also with sensors that give information about parameters like speed, flight altitude or deepness of dive, gives information progressively more exhaustive of the researched birds.

The studies of the migration with those technologies have completed the migration routes that were partially known, have included some important areas for the birds unknown until now or have detected dangerous areas where endangered species of birds die. On the other hand, some aspects of the behavior or about the relations with individuals of the same or different species, as well as the use of the territory they do in the different areas they stay, are a key for the development of more effective management and conservation measures.

Below the projects of Urdaibai Bird Center with this kind of devices are shown.

Project for the monitoring of Eurasian Woodcock with PTT transmitters.

The Eurasian Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) is a wader that has been hunted and whose behaviour is exceptional within its group, because it seeks refuge in the forest areas and feeds on open lands, basically, on fields where there is livestock. Every winter a great number of Woodcocks come to the Iberian Peninsula from the Center and North of Europe. With the aim of having a better knowledge of this species, Urdaibai Bird Center, in collaboration with the club of woodcock hunters, has marked two woodcocks with PTT transmitters that allow to have a very precise estimation of the geographical position in a long term.

Marked birds:

- "Urdaibai" Woodcock

- "Aranzadi" Woodcock

Project of Osprey monitoring thought satellite tracking

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a cosmopolitan bird that has one of the most es un ave cosmopolita, siendo una de las rapaces con mayor distribución mundial. Esto ha permitido que en muchas de sus áreas de nidificación sea profundamente estudiada y más aún debido al declive que la especie sufrió a mediados del s. XX  por el uso intensivo de DDT, de lo que actualmente todavía se está tratando de recuperar la especie.

Por este motivo, en aves migratorias como el Águila Pescadora, es importante conocer no sólo todo lo relativo a la especie en sus áreas de cría, sino también lo que sucede durante su migración, en sus áreas de descanso y finalmente en sus áreas de invernada. Dentro del conocimiento más profundo del uso del hábitat y ecología de la especie en sus áreas de descanso, se enclava el Proyecto de seguimiento del Águila Pescadora en Urdaibai, que permitirá realizar una protección más efectiva de las áreas más importantes de esta especie en la Reserva y detección  de las molestias que dificulten la recolonización del área por parte de la Pescadora. 

Dentro de este proyecto se colocó el primer Transmisor satélite a esta especie en Urdaibai, siendo el dispositivo cedido por TRAGSA y FAPAS.
 

Individuo:
 

- 3O “Berto”  Ver seguimiento

Migration conectivity and route identification of two populations of the Red-backed Shrike
 

The Red-backed Shrike (Lanius collurio) is a migratory species that breeds in our territory and winters in tropical Africa. During the  spring of 2011, this bird suffered a delay of almost a month in its migration and many of the known pairs didn´t return to their breeding areas,  therefore,  the necessity of a deeper study of this species was important.

For this reason, this project has been designed to get to know the migratory route and wintering areas of this migratory population, what is basic not only from an ecologic and evolutionary point of view but also for the identification of some facts that could be crucial for the survival or in certain vital processes of the birds, such as breeding success and physical condition, etc.

One of the most useful technologies for the detailed study of the migratory route and for the identification of the wintering areas in small birds is the geolocator, a little device that have a Global Location Sensing (GLS) system that measures light amount as well as the sunrise and sunset hour in order to identify the location of the bird.

Up to now, only one Escandinavian population has been analyzed, and that´s why this project wants to make a complementary study with a global view of the routes of the Red-backed Shrike, and for that, one of the westernmost population within its distribution area, the one of Urdaibai and other in the very east in Bulgaria have been chosen. In that way, the aim of this project is to describe the migratory route and identify the wintering areas of the European extreme west and east populations, as well as their migration connectivity, that is to say, if they winter in the same areas or separate areas.

In 2012, 60 geolocators were placed in breeding males, 30 in the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve and 30 in the Natura 2000 area of Rayanovtsi in Bulgary. During the spring of 2013 they will be recapatured and we will be able to download the information that have collected during the migration.

Identification of the migratory route and wintering area of the breeding population of the Barn Swallow  in Urdaibai.

The aim is to describe the migratory route and to identify the wintering area of the population of the Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) breeding in Urdaibai, as well as its migration connectivity which is  an essential fact for identifying some clue factors in the survival or in certain vital processes for birds such as breeding success and physical condition etc.

This project uses geolocators, which is one of the most used technology for a detailed study of the migratory route and for the identification of the wintering areas in small birds. This dispositive have a Global Location Sensing (GLS) system that measures light amount and the sunrise and sunset hour in order to identify the location of the bird.

The geolocators were placed in breeding individuals spread in several farmhouses of Urdaibai, mainly during July of 2012. In order to capture Barn Swallows were used nets around previusly localized nests. 50 individuals were captured (25 from each sex). In 2013, once the swallows have returned from Africa, they are being recaptured to get the geolocator.

 
The aim of this project is to develop and optimize nature monitoring systems, allowing new efficient public politics in environmental management as well as biodiversity protection and conservation.

The Monna project is funded throght the Operational Program of Territorial Cooperation Spain-France-Andorra 2007-2013 and has the following fellows: GAIA (Association of  Basque Country Industries of Electronic and information Technologies), Aranzadi society of science (Urdaibai Bird Center), Vicomtech (visual interaction and comunication technology center), AGUILA technologie (Akitania), Estia (Ecole Supérieure des Technologies Industrielles Avancés (Akitania) and de Fondation des Territoires de Demain.