SakerLife News ›

A Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) moving north was observed by a BSPB field team on 09.02.2012 within Kaliakra SPA (BG0002051). The second-year bird was coming from the south, flying about 20 meters over the ground and approaching the first wind turbine, sharply changed its flight direction towards east in order to avoid the wind farm.

In the beginning of 2011 a few members of Milvus Group with the help of Hungarian partners, searched for Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug) nests in Dobrogea and in the Western Plain of Romania. Unfortunately they didn’t find any nesting pairs, not even in places where breeding of Sakers had been known in the past years.

On January 18th 2012 a new cage for disabled individuals, built within the LIFE project, was opened in the rescue centre of ZOO Bratislava. Injured or other handicapped individuals of Saker or other birds of prey will be placed in the cage during the treatment.

Slovak Saker Falcon called Slávka, which was marked with a satellite transmitter (PTT) in June 2011, almost perished in central Bulgaria. Thanks to the intervention of local ornithologists, Slávka was saved and after professional help released back to the wild.

The team of the Project “Conservation of Falco cherrug in NE-Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia” (LIFE09 NAT/HU/000348) had a good year for saving this globally endangered species in Bulgaria. The baseline survey showed the existence of one pair in the Project territory, although its breeding is still unclear. Minimum 4 different Saker Falcons spent most of the winter in North-Eastern Bulgaria. For the first time the fact that through Bulgaria migrate not only Hungarian, but also Ukrainian and Slovak Sakers, was proven. It happened due to the satellite transmitters, put by the Hungarian and Slovak partners of the Project.