The prestigious "Geographical magazine" approaches the Basque Country through Urdaibai Bird Center.

Last weekend, journalists from the British "Geographical Magazine" (GM) have come to Urdaibai in order to get to know Urdaibai Bird Center and the projects that are carrying out.

Nick Haslam and Solange Eggermont wanted to write an article about this research, divulgation and tourism center, related to birds and their migrations.

This prestigious magazine carries out articles of a wide range of topics, including culture, wildlife, exploration, and adventure, all of them illustrated with gorgeous high quality photographs.

During their four day stay, they joined us while we worked in the projects that are currently carrying out. In relation to scientific ringing, they could attend our Constant Effort Stations (EEC) located in different habitats where we track passerine birds during different times of the year. Thus, they could learn about the process of marking and taking biometric data from different species such as sedge warbler, the eurasian blackcap, the nightingale reed warbler, Cetti´s warbler, or Willow Warbler, among others. However, the star was the Iberian chiffchaff, typical of the Peninsula and recently arrived from their winter quarters in Africa.

GM also attended the tracking campaign of the spring migration of the barn swallow in the Orueta lagoon (Gautegiz Arteaga). Thus, they could observe how the barn swallows were going down to sleep to the reeds at sunset, accompanying us throughout the process of banding and  having the chance to see the release of the specimens at sunrise in order to continue their journey to northern Europe.

In turn, GM could get to know the surroundings of the Biosphere Reserve of Urdaibai assisted by the divulgation team of Bird Center, discovering different aspects of the countryside and its flora, fauna, habitat types, etc.. and relating them to other researches we've done in previous years, in addition to our current project which is the recovery of the emblematic osprey.

Meanwhile, both, Nick and Solange were grateful to us for their stay in Urdaibai, and as well to Urremendi staff who collaborated in the organization of the stay and of course to David Elezgaray for having accompanied them during these days.