30 August 2010

Really accurate location at 1933GMT today in the favourite forest, 10.3 kms NW of Gbalatoah.

21 August 2010

Vespa remains in the same area of forest and shows a movemnet of nearly 5 kilometres after dawn.

02 August 2010

Two very good signals came in for 0713GMT and 0933GMT in the same area of forest. Vespa had moved over one kilometre to the west.

14 July 2010

Accurate signals from the same forest in Liberia, 8.6 kms NW of Gbalatoah.

04 July 2010

Again very good signals in what looks like dense forest 11 kms NW of Gbalatoah in Liberia.

25 June 2010

He is back in the same area of Liberia as 20 days ago.

16 June 2010

Vespa has moved back SE into NW Ivory Coast; a good location at 2244GMT last night was 22kms east of Odienne and 6 kms west of Tiemer.

06 June 2010

Vespa has moved 243 kilometres west into Liberia since the 27th May. He is in good forest 7 kms NW of Gbalatoah just west of a southern extension of Guinea. Is he going to move north or just continue with local movements in West Africa. Trying to understand the behaviour of first year honey buzzards is very interesting.

27 May 2010

Vespa's transmitter gave very good signals in the late evening and he is 2 kilometres south of his location of ten days ago.

18 May 2010

Still in same area, signals at dawn today were 2 kilometres north of the 8th May location.

08 May 2010

Today was about one kilometre south of the last position, so he has now settled for a while in this part of the country.

29 April 2010

Vespa has back-tracked 104 kilometres to the SW towards Bangolo. He is still moving about quite widely in worked forests and agricultural areas. The adult honey buzzards should have departed on spring migration so pressure from them on juveniles will have gone and they can now use the best habitats. I wonder if he will move north at all before his battery finally fails.

19 April 2010

Vespa has moved NE to a wooded area just SW of Seguela.

10 April 2010

Vespa has moved 32.5 kilometres NW to mixed woodland and villages between Banhiei and Keibli.

31 March 2010

Vespa moved 368 kilometres due west to the north end of the Tai National Park in western Ivory Coast on the border with Liberia. This region appears to be good West African rain forest with rich biodiversity including pygmy hippotamus and 10 species of monkey. Vespa's movements are proving very interesting and I hope the battery lasts for a few more months.

22 March 2010

Vespa moves 56 kms SE back to the Kakum National Park region.

13 March 2010

Vespa has made a 398 kilometres move WNW to the Ivory Coast and was overnight roosting in riverine woodland in the Ivory Coast, 52 kilometres SE of the capital Yamoussouko. Interesting that he still move about so much and he is now in linear riverine woodlands in cleared forest with agriculture.

03 March 2010

Vespa still in same forests, 7.2 kilometres NW of Kakum NP.

22 February 2010

Vespa was 6 kilometres NW of the Kakum NP

13 February 2010

Vespa has moved 16 kilometres north-west into woodlands rather than being in the protected forests of the Kakum National Park.

03 February 2010

Between 25th January and 3rd February (transmitters are on 10 day schedules to eke out the batteries as the small units are not solar)travelled 536 kilometres from Nigeria west to Ghana. He has settled in the northern part of the Kakum National Park - a tropical forest island with very interesting mammals, birds and butterflies, and an incedible tree top pathway. It must be a good place for honey buzzards - has anyone reading this log been there and any photos?

15 January 2010

Very accurate locations at overnight roost showed that Vespa had flown 95 kilometres back to previous wintering region. On 5th he had flown 112 kms NE from his earlier wintering site north of Lagos, where there were very accurate locations on 27th December 2009. We have been getting class 3 locations which are accurate to about 150 metres. He has flown to an area of continuous woodlands, as compared to the 5th January location where there was much greater forest loss, and much more cultivated lands.

10 January 2010

The location on 5th January was 132 kms NNE of his previous wintering area near Lagos; he had moved north in to woodlands to the NE of Ibadan. I wonder if he will settle there, move on somewhere else or return to the Lagos area.

08 December 2009

Vespa still living in the same general area of woodlands to the north of Lagos and still same area 18th.

28 November 2009

This evening Vespa was roosting in much the same area to the north of Lagos.

19 November 2009

Early this morning (0508GMT) Vespa was located 35 kilometres north of Lagos, in SW Nigeria. He was in the wooded valley of the large river which flows out at Lagos. The distance from his previous location in Guinea is 1850 kilometres, which is a very sustained movement east. I wonder how much further he will travel?

13 November 2009

Settled in the same area

10 November 2009

Vespa carried on further south on 4th November, into an area of woodlands interspersed with small farms; he then flew 177 miles WNW along the coastal forests of Liberia, where he roosted overnight on 7th/8th November. This was more continuous forest but he flew 61 kilometres NNE the next day to an region of excellent looking forest habitat for honey buzzards. He is clearly checking out the best areas in Liberia.

03 November 2009

Vespa had moved 155 kilometres SSE into SE Liberia by last evening.

01 November 2009

At 0028GMT this morning Vespa had flown a short distance across the border into Liberia, in a region of contiguous forests. I think he will now be close to his potential wintering area.

30 October 2009

Vespa was close eto Beyla at dawn, and by 1910GMT this evening had flown a further 250 kilometres SSE to the Ivory Coast, south of Toulepleu.

28 October 2009

Vespa was still in the usual location in Mali at dawn on 27th October, but at the next transmission at 2210GMT today, he was 448 kilometres to the south near Beyla in Guinea. The distance suggests he migrates yesterday and today. He is now in a forested region.

24 October 2009

Vespa remains in the same general area of woodlands in Mali.

15 October 2009

Vespa was five kilometres to the south in woodlands.

14 October 2009

In same area

12 October 2009

On 9th October, Vespa was roosting at night (2247GMT) in a wooded hillside in the same valley 100 kilometres west of Bamako. She was at an altitude of 481 metres. On 11th at 1830GMT she was 2 kilometres away, nearer the river in the valley at an altitude of 392 metres. She is lving in a broad wooded valley containing a small river, scattered trees and some woods on the steep slopes.

07 October 2009

Vespa has remained in much the same area, moving in wooded scrublands over a distance of 8 kilometres. There have been serious floods in West Africa, including this area, so there may be a plentiful food supply of frogs and insects for honey buzzards

03 October 2009

Vespa has not really moved much in last week, being mainly in an area of scrub. There have been heavy rains in West Africa with much flooding.

29 September 2009

Vespa is now west of Bamako - it is partly cloudy with some rain, which is probably delaying him.

26 September 2009

At 0959GMT was near the de la Boucle de Baoule National Park north of Bamako, Mali.

23 September 2009

Vespa is moving south and today was in western Mali, near Dyatara, which is about 250 kilometres north of the capital, Bamako.

22 September 2009

Vespa is going well and is all but over the desert - at 2110GMT this evening he is near Oualata in SE Mauritania.

21 September 2009

Vespa last night roosted in the north Mali deserts, right out in the middle of the Sahara Desert, about a 1000 kilometres in last two days. A second fix showed that he was roosting on the sands.

19 September 2009

At 0737GMT, Vespa was in the Algerian desert, midway between Tabelbala in Algeria and Merzouga in Morocco; he was near the N50 road south from Ablada. Yesterda, he appears to have flown 359 kilometres and is now started on his cross Saharan migration.

Later: a signal at 1102GMT showed that Vespa had flown 127 kilometres SSW in the 3+ hours this morning.

17 September 2009

Three locations in for this afternoon in northern Morocco, but quite far to the east. There's a strong westerly wind (26mph) in the Straits today, with partly cloudy weather - so its difficult to know whether he crossed yesterday or today, but the wind has cleared drifted him to the east. His journey from Bay of Bolonia was at least 287 kilometres.

By 1810GMT he had turned south over eastern Morocco and was near Guelb Renchon; 200 kilometres south of the Mediterranean coast.

16 September 2009

He roosted last night in a wooded hill just north of the Bay of Bolonia, west of El Leniscal and the roman ruins. I was watching Griffon vultures on this promontory in March this year; it is mainly covered with big Eucalyptes trees. This site is 18 kilometres NW of Tarifa, at the southern end of Spain. The weather forecast is partly sunny with light westerly winds; it's possible he will fly to Africa today and by now he should be with other honey buzzards waiting for the right weather conditions for gaining height and then crossing the Straights.

14 September 2009

Last night, Vespa roosted just north of Lisbon, in Portugal, so he must have flown on the Bay of Biscay in the high pressure as well as the ospreys.

10 September 2009

Vespa has flown through the UK since the last signals, and this evening (9.30pm) is in a wood south of the village of Loders, just NE of Bridport in Devon.

04 September 2009

Still in the breeding area this evening after a day of heavy rain.

29 August 2009

At 5.15pm, he was half a mile from the nest but at 10.18pm he had returned to roost in the nesting wood. This radio is transmitting one day ahead of 21253.

23 August 2009

High quality signal at 10.44pm showed that he was roosting in the nest wood.

05 August 2009

This honey buzzard was ringed and satellite tagged in a nest in Moray on 5th August; he is named Vespa after the Latin name of wasp. The satellite transmitter is 21252 - and is programmed to transmit every 6 days prior to migration (to save the tiny battery) for 6 cycles and will then transmit every 1.5 days until early winter, when it will change to once every ten days. We think he was flying over the wood on 8th August and the transmitter showed that he was moving up to two miles from his nest site, and returning to roost in that wood or close by.