The Great Bustard, on the threshold of conservation

Six years ago, we couldn’t have imagined making a partnership with the City Hall of Salonta (Bihor, Romania) for the conservation of the Great Bustard. Not to mention on the municipality’s own initiative! Nonetheless, this is exactly what happened. We are thrilled that the project „Conservation, protection and promotion of natural values in the Salonta-Békéscsaba cross-border area (ROHU-14) – The Nature Corner” has seen the light. At last, we have the opportunity to attend to this species just like we wished for many years ago and just like it deserves to. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Great Bustard (Otis tarda) is a globally vulnerable species, already extinct in many European countries where it used to be native. In Romania, the species knew a massive decline starting with the 1920s. Thus, in the last few years, one could see great bustards in Romania only in the Western Plains. (more…)

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Red-footed Falcon conservation measures: counting roosting sites, tagging birds with satellite transmitters

IMG_3665Following their long summer preparing, Red-footed Falcons start their migration in early autumn. On their way to south they roost in flocks of varying numbers (from a few individuals to even more than a thousand) on groups of trees. As they are faithful to their roosting sites, they arrive to these places each autumn. Milvus Group has been conducting Red-footed Falcon counts on roosting sites for several years now. Every week from mid-August until the first week of October synchronous observations are made in the Romanian, Hungarian and Serbian Red-footed Falcon roosting sites. Similarly to past years, this year observations have been made in 6 sites in western Romania (here we would like to thank all those helping us in these observations!). (more…)

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Mounting artificial nests and searching for new Lesser Spotted Eagle nests

nest2artificial nestWhile all Lesser Spotted Eagles started their spring migration in Africa, Milvus Group has started their seasonal conservation activities in Romania for the eagles arriving back home. One of the most important activities is searching for new eagle nests. While there are no leaves on the trees it is easier to find the nest of raptors. Until now we visited 12 forests in 9 days in the Natura 2000 sites from Valea Nirajului and Podișul Hârtibaciului. (more…)

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The death of a Saker Falcon, Maia

Maia - Photo: Luca Andrei Dehelean
On the 22.03.2012 a team from Romania made of 5 employees and volunteers of Milvus Group, working in the Saker Falcon conservation project LIFE09 NAT/HU/000384, travelled to Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. There we were kindly welcomed by two local ornithologist colleagues, Mr. Dražen Kotrošan and Mr. Iljan Dervovič, members of Ornitološko društvo “Naše ptice” (Ornithological Society „Our Birds“, an NGO from Bosnia  and Herzegovina, dedicated to the protection of birds) who helped us a lot during our visit. The aim of our trip was to recover the satellite transmitter, which was mounted last year in Romania on a juvenile female Saker, named Maia (VIDEO), and to answer our question if whether the transmitter has simply fallen from the back of the bird, or the bird died. In the latter case, we hoped to be able to identify the causes of death as well. (more…)

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