*Donate to My Research Project and Name a Logged Chick!!!*

At the beginning of June I will be returning to Portugal to attach GPS/GSM data loggers to chicks in the nests of logged adults and I need your help to decide their names. 

The stork chicks have hatched....

....grown (here about 20-25 days old)....

....and are close to fledging..

 Partly assisted by kind donations from my blog readers I have funds for 8 loggers. These will be attached to the 2 heaviest chicks in 4 nests and I need your help to decide names for them!

Names of 3 chicks have already been decided but:

 the next 5 people to donate to my research through this website will be offered the exciting opportunity to name the last 5 chicks. 

The loggers should last for up to a year and the location of the chicks can be viewed on a live map on the website of the British Trust for Ornithology, just like the adults.

Will the logged chicks winter in Portugal or is the instinct to migrate to Africa stronger? Will they migrate with the logged parent? Where in Africa will they go?

Find out the answer to these and other exciting questions by sponsoring a stork chick!

Loggers cost £100 each, but any amount you can spare would be very welcome! If I raise sufficient funds I will be able to fit more loggers, so donate without delay and name a stork chick! Currently, only the first 5 donors can name chicks, so be the first to donate!

Donate through Paypal by clicking on the 'Support a Stork' link on the top right side of this page.

Clicking on the "Donate" button takes you straight to Paypal so it is speedy and secure.

Update to follow on the progress of fund raising and stork chick naming -and of course photos of the loggers being fitted.

Thank you to all!

Duck Migratory Decisions Also Linked to Warmer European Winter Temperatures

Storks are not the only species whose migratory decisions are impacted by warmer European winter temperatures. Here a link to an article about UK ducks:

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22484907

Chicks of Logged Birds

Breeding season is well underway. Despite a few days of high winds experienced over most of Portugal, this season seems set to be a good year for breeding storks with no sign of the rain and low temperatures in the crucial first weeks after hatching that caused many nests to fail last year.

The birds do not all breed in synchrony together and so far I have seen chicks ranging from just hatched to 30 days old whilst some adults are still incubating eggs. 

Our logged birds feature along the full length of this spectrum: Ricardo's chicks being oldest and Carlos perhaps still on eggs (or his chicks too young for their heads to appear above the sides of the nest yet). Here are some photos of the logged birds with captions about their progress:

 

LEFT: Brutus regurgitating food for his chicks. The head of one can be seen next to his bill. Brutus appears to have 3 chicks, although his nest is deep so this is not confirmed because his chicks are still small.

ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss ssss sss  

RIGHT: Aldina (left) had 3 eggs and all these have hatched. Her chicks are still young and small which is why they are not visible in this picture.  Her neighbours 4 chicks (right), just visible as white bundles, are about 3 weeks older than Aldinas chicks. Aldina's chicks are the youngest of all the chicks in this colony.

BELOW: A blurry shot of Aldinas 3 10 day old chicks huddled together.

sss ssssssss ss sssss ssss ssss  


RIGHT: The biggest nests are usually occupied by the highest quality breeders. Ricardo has a big nest on a pylon. His chicks are the oldest of all the logged birds. The heads of 2 20-30day old chicks can just be seen above the top of the nest.

LEFT: Carlos is the only logged bird nesting alone rather than in a colony. His nest is on a tall purpose-built post topped with a nest platform. No heads of chicks have been seen yet, so I think he is still on eggs. Compare the nest size with Ricardo's. Carlos has a much smaller nest.

RIGHT: Phil has chosen to nest in a beautiful, old Cork Oak tree. His nest is low enough to see in to and has 4 very young chicks under 1 week old.

 

LEFT: Nathalie on a branch above her nest. If you click on the photo to enlarge it and look closely you can just see the logger on her back.

Sadly, Sara's breeding attempt seems to have failed in the last few days. I visited her nest on 5th May and saw no sign of her, her partner or any eggs/chicks. After a day or so without transmitting she suddenly abandoned her breeding site and is now in Spain. 

The reasons behind her breeding failure are unknown. The weather has been good and predation is unlikely because there is always an adult in attendance at the nest. It is possible that late returning migrants out-competed her for her nest however I saw no other adults at her nest. It is possible her partner died or she is a young, inexperienced mum and was not tending her chicks with sufficient care and therefore they did not survive. It is not uncommon for first-time breeders to fail. It is unlikely that she will attempt to breed again this year. Will Sara migrate to Africa now that her breeding season is over? Or will she stay in Iberia?

Keep checking up on the storks movements at the BTO's website to see where Sara goes (follow the link to the BTO stork tracking pages on the front page of my blog).

Storks in the News II

Carlos (3V+) on his nest near Alvito. I suspect he is on eggs as no chicks heads were seen

 Breeding season is well under way here in Portugal. Many storks have chicks, particularly in the north of the country, whilst the chicks are slightly younger in the south and many birds there are still on eggs. (I am still trying to figure out the reason behind this trend for earlier breeding in the north). I will be uploading photos of chicks of various ages just as soon as I have had a chance to sort through them all!

High winds and a sudden drop in temperature for a few days last week have caused havoc in some regions, particularly the Algarve. I was contacted with concern from Portimao where apparently nests have been blown to pieces and chicks left exposed. I shall be back there in a few days to check on the damage for myself. The nests in this area are part of my study and they were doing so well when I visited at the end of April!

The storks are well loved here in Portugal and the plight of the chicks has touched peoples hearts. The Portugal News, Portugal's largest English language newspaper, is running a story and asked for my comments. Portuguese readers look our for that article!

Nest on the Spanish border blown down by recent high winds

Fieldwork Round 2 –Back in Sunny Portugal

For the past few weeks I have been busy in the lab at UEA doing analysis of stable isotopes of Carbon and Nitrogen from more lesser kestrel and roller feathers (see my blog post Forensic Ecology for more about this). 

I have also been preparing the samples collected last fieldtrip: cleaning the eggshell samples of all organic material and freeze drying the egg contents. The eggs did not smell as bad as I feared when defrosted, although I worked under the fume hood just in case! The freeze drier is a cooled chamber attached to a vacuum pump. Freeze drying removes the water from the samples. As eggs are 90% water this took 6 days.

Right: Anyone fancy a shot? Egg contents samples looking surprisingly pretty in their variety of colours. They actually look rather drinkable, like a refreshing fruit shot -especially as you cant smell them in a photo!

Left: Egg shots in the freeze drier.

Today I landed in Faro, Portugal, to check up on the progress of breeding season and collect more samples. UK readers it is safe to read on. Faro is the same temperature as UK today: sunny, blue skies and 21⁰C! The only difference is that the air here is wonderfully perfumed with the scent of citrus from all the orange groves.

I will visit over 50 colonies gradually work my way north to the beautiful town of Aveiro, then across Portugal and back south along the Spanish border.

Expect frequent updates on the logged birds and other breeding season news over the next few weeks.

How Many Eggs?

ssssssssssssssssssssssss              A view with my camera pole into Aldina's nest.
sssssssssssssssssssssssss (for photos of Aldina on her nest see previous blog post.)



It has been a while since my last post. I have been busy doing ... everything! More about that tomorrow. First of all, some video of eggs in storks nests. The footage is somewhat shaky as the camera is lifted to nest height. How many eggs do they have?

ssssssssssssssssssssssssss           A very large clutch on a wooden telegraph pole in a colony near        ssssssssssssssssssssssssss    Evora landfill. Will all the eggs hatch? Will all the hatchlings fledge?
sssssssssssssssssssssssssss More updates later in the breeding season.
ssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Nesting Logged Birds

Left: Aldina (3Y+) is nesting on a ruin amid cork oak grassland. She is the left hand bird on the nest marked by the arrow.
Right: The logger has settled below Aldina's feathers, only her blue colour rings (just visible in this shot) ID her.

Studying the GPS positions of the logged birds has allowed me to work out where they might be nesting –especially now the birds are spending more time at their nests because the breeding season is getting underway.

Brutus (3W+) head down tidying his nest in a Eucalyptus tree

Part of my fieldwork involves visiting the nests to gather data. It is great to see the logged birds are all doing well and are apparently completely unaffected by their logger back-packs. These quickly sunk down into the feathers, which (most importantly) minimizes drag in flight but also keeps the loggers dry and safe from exposure to the elements. The loggers are not even visible as a hump on the storks backs! Only the blue colour rings on each leg indicate to me which storks are my logged birds.

Excuse the quality of my logged bird photos. They were taken through my telescope and Nuno was photographed in heavy rain. Most of the logged birds are in nests too high to view in to, with the exception of Aldina. She is in a colony of 10 nests had 3 eggs when I visited - and may even lay more eggs. More updates on her progress and hopefully photos of her chicks as the season progresses.

Nuno (37+) hunkered down in heavy rain on his nest 

in a Eucalyptus tree. Although other members of his 

colony have started laying it is likely that Nuno does 

not yet to have eggs because he was not incubating 

them, despite the rain.