Tag: Birds
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Senegal: Africa’s Best Kept Secret
My first visit to Senegal left me wanting more. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself in such a friendly and extraordinarily diverse country. Senegal is extremely rich in wildlife. Thus it is an attractive destination for anyone ready to experience the natural wonders Africa has to offer. The Democratic Republic of Senegal makes up…
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Wildlife audio library available on-line
Cornell Lab of Ornithology has been compiling audio archives from all around the world for decades, The renowned organization has made the wildlife audio library available for everyone on-line through the Macaulay Library. This amazing work contains nearly 150,000 digital audio recordings, more than 10 terabytes of data with a total run time of 7,513 hours.…
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Watching Barbary Macaques in northern Morocco
Barbary Macaques (Macaca sylvanus) can be found in Morocco and Algeria. There is a small population in Gibraltar as well. They are the only species of primate to inhabit Europe beside humans. Barbary Macaque numbers have shrunk over the years due to habitat loss and persecution. Today, most of them survive in small and increasingly…
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Post-fledging behavior and prey of the Solitary Eagle
With just a few nests discovered to date, the Solitary Eagle (Harpyhaliaetus solitarius) is one of the least known birds of prey in the world. As such, there is very little information on the ecology and behavior of the Solitary Eagle at any stage in their lives. In 2009, our team of biologists was working…
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The Birdman of Alcatraz
One day, a nest full of young birds fell from a tree into a courtyard. There was nothing extraordinary about the event – it happens every day all over the world. Sometimes the birds gets rescued, but more often than not, they go unnoticed and they either survive or they don’t. But on that particular…
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Ageing Vultures in Spain
Spain is home to four species of vultures including the Egyptian Vulture, Eurasian Griffon, Cinereous Vulture and Lammergeier. It is a fantastic place to observe these majestic birds. Of all of them, the Eurasian Griffon is the most abundant species. In fact, its numbers have increased over the past few years, and Spain is home to…
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The Honey Buzzard Migration
Having the opportunity to spend long periods of time in strategic places for watching migrating birds is priceless for any birder. The spectacle of migration is something that happens almost continuously throughout the year in the Strait of Gibraltar. The peaks of activity are mainly in August and September during the fall migration. Then again…
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Into the Wild Desert: Merzouga
One of the best places to enjoy desert avifauna is Merzouga. For most people, the desert represents one of the final frontiers. They might see it as a lifeless place of harsh extremes. But nothing is further from reality. It is true that the fauna in deserts is less abundant than in other ecosystems. However,…
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La Janda, a Magical Place
Without a doubt, the loss of La Janda Lagoon was an environmental catastrophe for southern Spain. Those who made the decision to drain the largest lagoon in southern Europe for its use as farmland cared little for the fact that it was a refuge for millions of resident and passing birds and located in a…