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Blog posts after 1 Feb 2018 about Steppe eagles tracked from Oman can be found at the Steppe eagle blog

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

August 2016

During August our tagged Egyptian vulture spent most of its time in Wadi Sareen Reserve, but made regular trips out of the reserve to known rubbish dumps, villages and to roost on power lines.  It gave us a bit of a scare around the middle of the month when we went four days without hearing anything, but gratefully it popped up again and uploaded the stored locations. Apparently it spent much of the time while missing in the steep valleys and wadis of the Wadi Sareen Reserve, where the gsm signal must be poor.

Movements of tagged Egyptian vulture during August 2016. (Click on image to enlarge)
In the last week of August the vulture has ventured south, spent time in Ibra (where it spent much of its time in late spring), and on 31 August was moving south and east of Ibra in the area between the Hajar Mountains and the Wahiba Sands.

Movements of tagged eagle during 24-31 August 2016. (Click on image to enlarge.)

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Mid-summer

For the last 3 weeks the Egyptian vulture we are tracking has been in Wadi Sareen and the Al Multaqa area, and has not made any trips to Ibra.  This pattern is similar to what we have seen before.  Typically, this bird settles in an area for a period of time, then as time passes makes forays out to other areas.  More time passes and the visits to one of those areas increases until eventually all activity centres around the new area.  Thus, this bird has moved to Quriyat (February), then Tahwa (March-April), then Ibra (April-July) and now Wadi Sareen (June-?).
Movements of Egyptian vulture during 18 July-6 August 2016.
Movements of Egyptian vulture during 1-6 August2016.
 Of course we caught this bird at Al Multaqa, and in recent days it has spent time at the landfill there.
Visits to the landfill at Al Multaqa during 18 July-6 August 2016 by transmittered Egyptian vulture.