Migration around the Caspian Sea

I was in Iran last autumn together with two excellent local researchers to verify if it exists a migratory flyway of raptors between the southern coast of the the Caspian Sea and the Alborz mountain. The results were exciting since we observed the passage of hundreds of Steppe Eagles and other raptors, storks and bee-eaters. Our field survey reveals that the area is a migratory bottle-necks of paramount importance for Palearctic raptors. Everything there was impressive, the high mountains, the steppic area, the Gorgan Bay with tens of thousands waterbirds and, of course, the migration.

Here below a few pictures of eagles.

  

I love you Cormorant!

Cormorants are probably the most evident waterbirds, apart from gulls, easy to observe along the Tiber river downtown Rome. During winter they give an easy touch of wildlife between the old bridges and the survived trees. However their number greatly vary and seems to have decreased in the last twenty years. Nobody care about it, as anything else related to wildlife, but it might be caused by a drop in fish density in the river.