In the last two days we caught and tagged with GPS loggers two more Mediterranean Shags which we named Nikola and Tartini. Both are young individuals – the former hatched this winter when the latter celebrated its first birthday. Yesterday Nikola foraged at sea up to 1 km from the coast of Isola and roosted on mussel farm near the Italian border. Tartini spend the night on mussel farm near Strunjan and went foraging in the morning as far as 2,5 km from the coast. We plan to tag 11 more Mediterranean Shags this summer to gain crucial data for identification of their most important foraging areas in the Slovenian sea. We will then prepare proposal of new marine IBAs and submit it to BirdLife International in autumn. The proposal will be reviewed and IBAs eventually included in the official BirdLife’s database.
author: Urška Koce