Montagu's harrier is under severe threat. Young harriers face certain death due to poor agricultural practices. The early harvesting of crops destroyed their nests getting and even combines stab chicks. Monitoring and management of nests, joined the environmental awareness of farmers, can reduce these deaths entirely. Help us to save and make this vulnerable species to extinction fly through our fields without threats.
Project Description
From Ornithological Station of Padul we present a project consisting on Salvage Campaign of Montagu's Harrier in Granada, listed as a vulnerable species, which is seriously endangered by human action, so it needs our help.
Who are we? The Environmental Association Ornithological Station of Padul is a nonprofit organization whose goal is the study and the struggle for bird conservation. This partnership brings twelve years performing Salvage Campaign Montagu's Harrier in Granada where we have saved more than 600 chickens from certain death. The tremendous threat to this species makes human intervention necessary to secure the future of this majestic bird.
Why present this project? Montagu's Harrier is a raptor of slender figure with long limbs and robust appearance. The male is ashy gray, almost entirely, while the female has brown tones. It is an endangered species that is listed as Vulnerable in Royal Decree 23/2012 Management of Natural Environment in Andalucia. This raptor migrates in summer and reaches Spain from Africa. They come to our country just to breed in summer because there are here the best conditions for this. Few raptors are so linked to human activities such as Montagu's Harrier, a species that, in our country, highly dependent on large tracts of cultivated wheat and barley, which installs the nests.
After courtship, the female builds the nest with the help of the male, always on the ground and within these crops or similar steppe zones. As beneficial effects on crops, Montagu's harrier removes large amounts of voles, mice, grasshoppers and grain-eating birds, which are its usual prey. Its main threat is represented precisely its habit of nesting in the soil for cereal crops, since the period of incubation and rearing chicks coincides often with the harvest of cereal, representing a high mortality due to destruction nests and the direct killing of chickens stabbed by mowers. Currently, Montagu's harrier has an uncertain future, their populations are declining mainly due to poor agricultural practices that destroy their nests.
In Granada settle for around 45 nesting pairs, which would be able to raise about 180 chickens a year. Therefore, Granada is an important breeding of the species in Andalucia. If you're a bird lover or understand the horrible situation that this species faces in their breeding grounds, from the Ornithological Station of Padul need your help, without which this project may not be completed and numerous chicks of Montagu's harrier will not go forward, doomed to certain death.
The strategies we use to stop this mortality guarantee 100% survival of chicks. They are simple but totally necessary methods for the survival of the chickens.
What is our project?
Salvage Campaign Montagu's Harrier is based on two pillars:
ü Mortality reduction of chicks: through solidarity campaigns that combine the specialized field work in group through environmental volunteer training.
ü Sensitization and social awareness to achieve integration of agriculture in the protection of the species: promote good agricultural practices that respect the reproductive period of the species, thus assuring its success without human intervention.
How did it take place? To achieve the above objectives, we have established a series of phases that are listed below: 1) Formation of volunteering. 2) Location of harrier couples. 3) Location of nests. 4) Access to nests and collecting information. 5) Monitoring of nests. 6) Sensitization and awareness. 7) Management of nests. 8) Chicks salvage. The development of campaigns in previous years have successfully covered their goals despite the drawbacks with which every year we are: loss of habitat potential, harvest green, unforeseen collections, etc. Furthermore, in recent years, it has increased the effectiveness in reaching locating nests in 2011, 41 were located and 128 was the number of flown chicks, being positive the progression of chicks getting fly and the general population dynamics in Granada.
