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

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

December 2017

I haven't blogged lately about the birds we are tracking because they have not moved very far.  I think it is safe to say that their current locations are their wintering locations for 2017-18. Below are maps that show the locations of the birds relative to one another in Saudi Arabia, and as individuals. The locations are those collected during December, and show just how settled the birds are.  The main feature of both is that there are rubbish dumps where they spend most of their time.

Unfortunately, the Egyptian vulture we have been tracking has not been heard of since 4 October.  At that time the transmitter seemed to be working fine, and we had had spells, sometime months at a time, when the bird went missing, presumably because it was somewhere outside the GSM network over which the data are uploaded.  I sure hope it will turn up again soon (and dump its data telling us where it has been!).

Locations of two Steppe eagles being tracked by satellite in Saudi Arabia during December 2017.
Locations of a Steppe eagle wintering about 120 km NW of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during December 2017.
Locations of a Steppe eagle wintering near Abha, Saudi Arabia during December 2017.