Some of our projects around the world
We used the radar at the island of Ustica (a small island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea, 70 km off the coast of Sicily) to detect raptors leaving the island during spring 2012 and 2013. We deployed the radar on the north-eastern coast of the island close to the Falconiera Promontory to investigate the water-crossing tendency of raptors.
This island is attractive for migrating birds because it is isolated and some thousands of raptors, mostly European Honey Buzzards and Western Marsh Harriers migrate through the island in spring. About the half of tracked Honey buzzards flew in the opposite expected direction of migration showing an unexpected water-crossing behaviour. Here below a track of Marsh harrier leaving the island toward North-East.
The Strait of Messina is the most important bottle-neck along the Mid-Mediterranean Flyway with thousands of raptors observed both in spring and autumn. Nocturnal migration is also impressive, with thousands of birds passing every single night. Our field station was active both on the continental side and in Sicily in spring (March 15 - May 30) and autumn (August 11 - October 10). The radar monitoring at the Strait of Messina is part of Strait of Messina Bird Observatory.
The sheer aridity and high temperatures make it sure this peculiar seabird has very few predators during the breeding period. The grey gull is one of the very few species capable of nesting in the interior Atacama Desert, and performs nocturnal commuting flights to and from its foraging areas on the coast.
We collaborated with the local research institutions with the ultimate goal to locate new colonies of this species. To do so, we needed to track the nocturnal movements of grey gulls. Grey gulls leave the sea and the colony right after sunset. Therefore, knowing the time of peak arrivals at one location in the desert, we can estimate the distance travelled by the birds and therefore locate their origin.
We spent 15 nights following the gulls in the Atacama Desert, operating our radar with a range of 6 km, having installed it on a pickup truck. We discovered six new active colonies, four of which we have located precisely. Operating a bird radar in a barren, unhospitable environment far from all possible comforts requires equipment reliability, but most of all a thorough technical skill set on our side.
The location chosen for the project is off the coast of Sardinia. Little is known about bird migration in the area, so we installed a double radar (horizontal and vertical) to gather accurate 24/7 data for 6 weeks during the migratory season.
Rugged terrain and exposure to strong winds did not stop up from complementing radar data with direct observations by expert bird counters, who identified and (when possible) aged and sexed, all species flying over our watchpoint.
Of course, only using binoculars and scopes would be limiting to say the least. With a x30 magnifying telescope, one could see and identify a Common Gull-sized bird up to approximately 800 metres. Our radars can track a similarly sized target up to 3 kilometres. It goes without saying that radar systems are of the essence when the need is to monitor an extended area such as that needed for an offshore wind farm.