Great Bustards - Salisbury Plains UK (1 Viewer)

[WebBustard]

Hiya,

Just a quick note to keep people up to date on the Great Bustard Project.

We are currently prepping for the new chicks which should arrive in the next few months (depending on Russian paperwork etc.) and as such have stopped taking visitors to see the birds. We will start this up again once the new birds are settled.

The website is updated on a semi regular basis (updated yesterday with some new photos) so feel free to have a look

www.greatbustard.com

You will see all the info on the website, but a quick update is below:

We are down to about 9 or 10 birds alive (difficult to keep track of them in the winter due to the weather) most of the losses have been to flying accidents with a few fox attacks. Some of these birds are in capitivity as they have injuries that will stop them flying and so cannot be released.

Out of those we released into the wild about 30% are still out there and doing well, we hope to increase this percentage this year with some basic changes to the pens and procedures.

The group is very optimistic about this year and look forward to more people visiting....we would like to thank all those who did visit last year (20 or so visitors a day were not uncommon) and how they will come again to see the changes. Special thanks to those who donated money or became members of the Group.

Thanks

WebBustard
(Great Bustard Group Webmaster - any problems with the website please e-mail me - [email protected])

 

[brianfm]

Hi

Thanks for the info. I had wondered how the project had being progressing as there seemed to be little news around. I will keep a look out on the web site in future. Hope that I get to see them sometime.

Cheers.

PS Have just checked the site and seen it was up dated in May 05. That's good going

 

[pauco]

Thanks for the update, good luckfor the new arrivals.

 

[david2004]

Thanks for that WebBustard.

 

[timmyjones]

WebBustard.

i cant quite figure out if the photos of these birds are of birds in the U.K or in Russia could you help me out there as it would be fantastic to see them even if they are released but if they bred wohah

 

[jurek]

Thanks! Please, carry on doing good work

 

[WebBustard]

Just realised I'd been thinking that April was the 5th Month in the year (someone pointed it out at work today!!)

The photo's are split into 4 groups.

Top line is random photo's from other sources
Next line down are photo's from Russia or other projects
The next 2 lines of photos are from the UK and have been taken by either me or other members of the group during last year, including the bustards in the wild on Salisbury Plains.
The bottom line is of us putting up the quarantine pens in March of this year.

Hope that helps on the photo front.

WebBustard

 

[jurek]

There are now some nice pictures of displaying males on surfbirds which let me marvel again at this improbable bird.

Is it just me, or displaying bustards in Hungary and Germany are a bit different from ones in Spain?

Basically, male "whisker" feathers seem to be longer, thicker and raised, wings are kept spread, giving somewhat pyramid-shaped posture and plumage is not turned completely white. In Spain, I thought that whisker feathers were not so visible, birds kept wings closer to body giving a bit oval shape and sometimes appeared completely white.

Is my memory playing tricks, or is it really a difference?