Amur Falcons on Rich Ranch

Thought you would like to know this.

We have lived on the farm for ten years now and every summer we see loads of falcons for a period of about two months. They appear one day and are gone on another. We have eventually found the answer to the mystery.

This is a write up in the Farmers Weekly.

“During the summer months, eastern parts of South Africa are visited by thousands of gregarious orange- footed falcons.

These predominately grey (male) and speckled (female) Amur falcons (Falco amurensis) are responsible for one of the most extraordinary migrations in the world, flying a staggering 13000km from Eastern China to South Africa in the northern hemisphere’s autumn and then back at the end of the southern hemisphere’s summer.

In recent years, more details about the falcon’s migratory patterns have been uncovered, thanks to a project steered by Dr Bernd-Ulrich Meyburg, head of Birdlife Germany’s federal working group on bird of prey protection, and chairperson of the World Working Group on Birds of Prey.

Dr Meyburg visited South Africa in January 2010 and with volunteers from the Migrating Kestrel Project – which was formed in 1994 under the Raptor Conservation Group – captured 10 Amur falcons near Newcastle in KwaZulu Natal and fitted them with satellite transmitters.

Thanks to seven falcons it’s subsequently been found that they use different routes in their migratory journeys, fly for 2500 to 3100km over part of the Indian Ocean in spring, have stopover points on their routes, fly south of the Himalayan Mountains en route to China and are capable of travelling up most of Africa in only a few days.

Pretty interesting don’t you think.