Raptor Migration Network has been founded
From 9th to 11th June we met with representatives from several major soaring bird migration bottlenecks of the western palearctic in Chalets d’Irati-Larrau/Lorraine, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. The scientific workshop was organized and funded through EURAPMON and the European Science Foundation.
For two days we discussed the future of raptor migration counts and the potential of addressing research questions to all migration count sites. The workshop reviewed the existing protocols, management of sites, and database handling in order to draft objectives for a strategical alignment of pan-european raptor migration sites to establish a comprehensive monitoring of European raptor migrant populations.
We are proud to announce the formation of the Raptor Migration Network (Monitoring the European-African Flyways) has been successful and will strongly support the conservation of raptors.
In autumn the network's portal will be launched on raptormigrationnetwork.org to inform the public about raptor migration bottlenecks, overviews, phenologies and provides access for volunteering counters.
The following migration count sites participated:
Antikythira (Greece)
Batumi (Georgia)
Burgas (Bulgaria)
Eilat (Israel)
Malta (Malta)
Organbidexka / Pyrenees (France)
Strait of Messina (Italy)
Strait of Gibraltar (Spain)
Links:
www.eurapmon.net
www.raptormigrationnetwork.org (to be launched in autumn)
www.trektellen.org
We would like to thank all participants for their time and input, for their visions and motivation to realize the network's formation.
Sincerely yours,
the organizing committee on behalf of EURAPMON
Jasper Wehrmann (Batumi Raptor Count)
Jean-Paul Urcun (LPO Aquitaine)
Michele Panuccio (Medraptors)