News on ringed birds in Libya

As you may know I am always searching for any research information on Libyan birds. I thought I had exhausted all the possible searches on the internet but a couple of weeks ago I found some new information.

Actually it isn't new in the sense of being very recent year but it is new in the sense I have just discovered it.

It comes from Rikmuseum, Stockholm in Sweden:  www.nrm.se/en/menu/researchandcollections/departments/vertebratezoology/birdringingcentre/latestnews

They run several ringing projects and I found news of two ringed birds that were discovered in Libya. Both items come from autumn 2009.

kestrel seen at Temimi in November

Libya has a large kestrel population all over the country. They are common, for example, on the government farms in the desert as much as on the coast.

I hadn't fully appreciated that our local population is supplemented with migrants from northern Europe in winter but that's what the following article from the Rikmuseum implies:

2009-11-18

Ringed Kestrel found in Libya

A Swedish ringed Kestrel was found on the 6 November at Dahra oil field in Libya (about 150 km south of the coast). The report was made by a person from Ireland working in the area. The bird was taken care of but in good health and the reporter asked if they should release it. It was ringed as a nestling in June 2006 at Östervåla, north of Stockholm in the province of Uppland. The main wintering area of Kestrels breeding in Sweden is in northern Germany ,Denmark and southern Sweden, but some move further south and few even cross the Sahara desert. The normal direction of migration is southwest, which means that this bird was also found more to the east than normal.



The second Swedish ringed bird found in Libya was a red-backed shrike.

red backed shrike seen in Brega in October

2009-10-05

Swedish ringed Red-backed Shrike found in Libya 

A female Red-backed Shrike, ringed on 21 May 2003 at Ottenby Bird Observatory, has been reported as killed in eastern Libya on 20 September this year. The ring was, according to the report, confiscated from illegal hunters. Red-backed Shrikes breeding inSweden pass the eastern Mediterranean on their way to wintering areas south of the equator in Africa. We have 33 recoveries in Greece and 22 in Egypt, but this is the first Swedish ringed Red-backed Shrike found in Libya.A Swedish ringed Kestrel was found on the 6 November at Dahra oil field in Libya (about 150 km south of the coast). The report was made by a person from Ireland working in the area. The bird was taken care of but in good health and the reporter asked if they should release it. It was ringed as a nestling in June 2006 at Östervåla, north of Stockholm in the province of Uppland. The main wintering area of Kestrels breeding in Sweden is in northern Germany ,Denmark and southern Sweden, but some move further south and few even cross the Sahara desert. The normal direction of migration is southwest, which means that this bird was also found more to the east (I think this is a mistake in the article! - should read west) than normal.

I am not sure this one piece of information tells us too much about the origin of most red-backed shrike which pass through Libya but it does infer that they may be birds west (and south too) of Sweden ie from western Europe.