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Field Actions
Rabbit Survey
A survey of rabbit abundance throughout the Bonelli's eagle range in the Southwest uplands was carried out in the summer 2009. This repeated a former survey made in 1997 in order to assess population trends. It included 246 transects of latrine counts, in 94 of which no latrines were observed.
Restoration of a pigeon loft at Parra National Forest Estate
The reconstruction of an old pigeon loft at Parra National Forest Estate was finished in July 2009. This State property in the Silves County is under the administration of the Algarve Regional Forest Directorate/National Forestry Authority, a partner of the Life project. The restoration of the loft is one of several actions of the project in this public area. The loft reconstruction followed the technical guidelines to allow an easy maintenance of good sanitary conditions in order to prevent diseases such as trichomonosis. This loft contributes to the increase of prey availability, presumably diverting predation from game species and hence reducing the potential of conflict with hunters.
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| The loft before restoration |
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The loft after restoration |
Management agreements
This summer two more management agreements were signed. These agreements will cover a period of 15 years. In parallel, a tree lease contract was established for a 30-year period, concerning a small eucalyptus wood in the same property.
Nest Reinforcement/construction
The reinforcement of the nest in the territory of Funcho in order to improve its stability was made in June 2009. In Brejeira an artificial nest was built to enhance the availability of nesting sites in this territory where breeding has been unsuccessful for more than one decade.
Tagging and release of a juvenile treated to trichomonosis
A Bonelli's eagle fledgling with a serious trichomonosis infection was found on the 12th May 2009 in Parra National Forest Estate by Mr. Jorge Cavacas, a technical officer of the National Forest Authority. The bird was treated at the Bird Rehabilitation Center of the Ria Formosa National Park by Mr. Daniel Santos, its former officer in charge and by the veterinarian Dr. Patrícia Cachola. After 10 days the bird was fully recovered and was equipped with a GPS/PTT being released on the 22nd May to check for the treatment efficiency as recommended at the Workshop on Trichomonosis held in 2007.
Capture and tagging of adults
On December 2008, 2 male adults were captured from territories with high density of wind turbines to evaluate risks associated with these infrastructures by satellite telemetry data. Two more adults, one male and one female were captured on the 13th June 2009, also equipped with GPS/PTT transmitters. The selected territories were those with the highest cover of eucalyptus plantations in order to assess their effect in eagle foraging activity.
Habitat Management Agreements
Establishing habitat management agreements with the landowners of nesting sites is a major goal of the project. It is a structural conservation measure which is expected to be relevant for the mitigation of factors impairing breeding success, namely those causing disturbance and habitat degradation in nesting areas. This intervention aims primarily at the regulation of land uses surrounding nest trees, usually large eucalyptus, pines or cork-oaks.
The agreement implies the acceptance of an "Acting Protocol" by the landowners including the restrictions and conditionings that must be implemented in the land patches under contract, with a special focus on forestry and hunting, and against an amount of monetary compensation which varies according with the type of land use and the extent of land under contract.
In the past 6th February the two first management agreements were signed concerning two different Bonelli's eagle territories of the Monchique Special Protection Area (SPA). Later on, management measures were also established through contract in a third territory of the same SPA.
Until the end of the project, this action is expected to bring benefits to c.18 eagle pairs in the Nature 2000 Monchique and Caldeirão SPAs.
Capture and tagging of adults
On the 3rd and 4th July 2008, 4 adult female Bonelli's eagles were captured and equipped with satellite telemetry GPS/PTT transmitters. These eagles were from selected territories with the largest number and extent of power lines and closer to areas of high human presence thence the more appropriate to assess the risks of collision and shooting associated with these threats. They were also chosen in order to study movements of territorial adults and their spatial organization.
In last December, two more adult males were captured from territories with hogh density of wind turbines in order to evaluate the risk associated with wind farms.
We anticipate two more captures in the spring 2009 after receiving the PTTs purchased to Microwave Telemetry. The company Strix was hired by CEAI to make the analysis of the telemetry data, therefore allowing a better study of movements, habitat selection and mortality causes.
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