Yellow-legged gull spring campaign just began

Photo M Gomila.

The 2018 spring campaign of Yellow legged gull at Dragonera natural park is getting to its peak. Today we set traps, measured eggs and search for marked individuals. This year, thank to M. Gomila, we are going to add some extra readings by using a digital zoom (and great skills!)
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Yellow-legged gulls on Air

Saturday 07/04/2018 at 12h15, speaking about Yellow-Legged Gulls, their movements and their ecology, at "Balears fa Ciència" (min 19).  Here

New publication on seabird phenology and climate change !

Keogan, K., Daunt, F. [...], Igual, J.M. [...], Sanz-Aguilar, A. [...], Lewis, S. 2018. Global phenological insensitivity to shifting ocean temperatures among seabirds. Nature Climatre Change 8,313–318 doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0115-z

Photo: from CEHseabirds

Abstract: Reproductive timing in many taxa plays a key role in determining breeding productivity, and is often sensitive to climatic conditions. Current climate change may alter the timing of breeding at different rates across trophic levels, potentially resulting in temporal mismatch between the resource requirements of predators and their prey. This is of particular concern for higher-trophic-level organisms, whose longer generation times confer a lower rate of evolutionary rescue than primary producers or consumers. However, the disconnection between studies of ecological change in marine systems makes it difficult to detect general changes in the timing of reproduction. Here, we use a comprehensive meta-analysis of 209 phenological time series from 145 breeding populations to show that, on average, seabird populations worldwide have not adjusted their breeding seasons over time (−0.020 days yr⁻¹) or in response to sea surface temperature (SST) (−0.272 days °C⁻¹) between 1952 and 2015. However, marked between-year variation in timing observed in resident species and some Pelecaniformes and Suliformes (cormorants, gannets and boobies) may imply that timing, in some cases, is affected by unmeasured environmental conditions. This limited temperature-mediated plasticity of reproductive timing in seabirds potentially makes these top predators highly vulnerable to future mismatch with lower-trophic-level resources.

GEDA at the workshop on Egyptian vulture

Ainara Cortes from the GEDA participted at the international workshop on Egyptian vulture in the Western European flyway held in Alcantara the 26th-27th of March 2018. An important meeting organized by the Vulture Conservation Fundation (VCF) to set conservation priorities and coordinating management actions.

New publication on tern survival !

Payo-Payo, A., Sanz-Aguilar, A., Gaglio, D., Sherley, R.B.,Cook, T.R., Altwegg, R. and Ryan, P.G. 2018 Survival estimates for the greater crested tern Thalasseus bergii in southern Africa African Journal of Marine Science, 40. 45-50, doi: https://doi.org/10.2989/1814232X.2018.1437470

Abstract: The nominate race of the greater crested tern Thalasseus bergii breeds only along the coast of the Benguela region (west coast) of southern Africa, where its population is increasing, in contrast to other species of breeding seabirds in the region which similarly depend on forage fish. Although this population’s trends are well known, its demographic parameters remain obscure. 
We used multi-event capture–recapture–recovery modelling to provide the first estimates of survival. The survival rate of birds older than two years was 0.93 (0.91–0.95); second-year survival was 0.93 (0.90–0.95) and first-year survival was 0.80 (0.73–0.85). A resighting of a 34-year-old bird is a new longevity record for the species. Population growth rates projected with a Leslie matrix model that included our survival estimates were very similar to estimates from annual counts of the breeding population (7–8% y⁻¹), suggesting that these survival estimates adequately describe the species’ demography. High survival rates have likely contributed to the species’ recent population increase in the region.

The study made the journal cover. Congrats Ana & Ana (& Co.)