Kim has managed to safely cross one of the world’s most hostile environments in a little under a week. Amazingly she has covered just over 2000 km in 6 days and is now over half way back on her return journey to her nest-site in North Wales.

Kim safely crosses the Sahara Desert in 6 days

On the evening of 6th May Kim had reached the southern edge of the Sahara Desert on her northward migration back to Wales after completing a journey of over 400km during the day. She is already over 1000km North of where she wintered in the Ivory Coast. This is the first time a British Honey Buzzard has been satellite tracked on its northward migration and so far there are no great surprises as she is broadly retracing her southward journey last autumn.

We have still not had any signals from Mel and will soon have to accept that either the tag has stopped working or that he has not survived the winter. He should be well on his way home now so it cannot simply be that he keeping his tag in the shade in some Guinean rainforest.

Kim starts her northward journey home to Wales

After spending the entire winter in an area of approximately 10km radius, in the south of the Ivory Coast our female Honey Buzzard, Kim, appears to have started her northward migration. On the morning of 19th April she was still in the same area but by 20th April she had moved a few hundred kms to the north of the country. The satellite signals are not good quality so it will be interesting to get the more accurate GPS locations in 3 days time to she exactly where she is.

Mel, the male, has not transmitted a signal since 17th February when he was in dense rain forest in Guinea having returned there from 200kms further south in the Ivory Coast. I should get new data for him tomorrow so hopefully he too may have set off north.

Updates will hopefully be more frequent now that the birds appear to be on the move again.

After two months in the same small area of forest in Guinea, West Africa, Mel has recently started migrating again down through Liberia in to Southern Ivory Coast and is now only 240 km from Kim’s last reported location near Yopohua.

Thanks to the marvellous free-to-download application, Google Earth, EcologyMatters is able to share with you the detailed information on the migration routes of two Welsh Honey Buzzards so that you can join them on their epic travels to and from sub-Saharan Africa from the comfort of your own home.

For obvious security reasons all locational information gathered in and around their nesting areas after they were tagged has been withheld and any future information will be stopped should they successfully return to Wales in 2009.

To follow Mel & Kim’s travels simply download Google Earth for free from the Google website: http://www.google.com/earth

Register with EcologyMatters here. After registration you will be sent a password that will enable you to download two Google Earth .kml files for Mel and Kim. Copy them to your desktop and then simply drag and drop them on to your Google Earth icon.

Once the Honey Buzzard information is in your list of Places you can follow their full journey using the time bar or tour functions within Google Earth or you can zoom right in to see where exactly they have got to.

Updates will be posted at weekly intervals, but more frequently when the birds are on active migration.

This Project was only made possible with the assistance of Steve Roberts and Adrienne Stratford. We are also grateful to Forestry Commission Cymru for access to nesting sites and to Nuon Renewables for part funding the project.

Satellite tracking gives us a remarkable insight into the lives and movements of birds and other animals but is very expensive. Donations to help us fund future work would be most gratefully received and can be made through our charitable arm, The Ecology Matters Trust.

Kim has now reached Ivory Coast after spending a few days recuperating in SW Mali. She has completed over 400km in the past 3 days and is now further south than our male bird Mel (as far as we know!)

Mel’s last confirmed position was nearly 3 weeks ago in Southern Guinea. After getting increasingly concerned that we had heard nothing at all there was a slight ‘blip’ from Mel’s satellite tag on 8th October. It was not enough of a signal to give us any location detail but it does suggest he is still alive and moving. I suspect he is still hold-up in the rainforests of tropical Guinea and his satellite tag is not getting enough direct sunlight to send us a position.

Kim, our female Honey Buzzard has cleared the Sahara Desert and is now in the Sahel region of Mali. In a straight line distance, she is over 4,430 kms SSW of her nest site and just 500kms NNE of where the male has been for the past few weeks. He in turn is some 4,800 kms SSW of his nest site.

Female Honey Buzzard clears the desert

In reality both birds have now followed migrations routes in excess of 5,000 km since they were tagged in Wales.

Kim, our female Honey Buzzard, has made amazing progress across the Sahara, covering over 700km in the past two days. As I write she may well have already finished her hazardous desert crossing.

As during the rest of her long journey she has been doing almost all her flying between the hours of 9.00AM and 6.00PM, presumably roosting in dunes during the hours of darkness.

Female Honey Buzzard nearing the end of her hazardous desert crossing

Surprisingly the weather forecast gave cloudy skies for Sunday 28th in Mauritania – so let’s hope it hasn’t slowed her passage.

The male’s tag has not transmitted a location for several days now but this is not too much of a concern, we know he is in thick forest and the weather maps show heavy cloud and rains in that area. Hopefully we will get confirmation of his current position soon.

Kim has upped gear and is making great progress over the inhospitable terrain of the Sahara Desert. The last three days data, received this morning, shows that since 6pm on 21st September she has flown over 833 kms and is, as the Honey Buzzard flys, some 775 kms SE of her position at that time. She is now almost half way across this major obstacle in her migration path. Hopefully her past experiences will help her in the crossing. We do not know how old Kim is but as a successful breeding adult we can safely guess that she has made the crossing at least a couple of times previously.

Kim takes a more western track across the Sahara