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Thursday, 15/May/2008
Chough Conservation on Islay (and in Portugal)
In the Islay Blogging Roundup #31 two weeks ago I linked to a Portuguese blog entry with the title Projecto Bico-vermelho: Os abrigos de Islay. As my knowledge of Portuguese is a wee bit underdeveloped (or in other words, I don't know a single word) I asked if anyone could help with translating with it. From some of the words and pictures I could guess that it was about Choughs and that it was somehow about Islay, which is a stronghold for them in the UK. Yesterday evening the comment and translation I had hoped for turned up at the entry:
Not just by anyone, but by Paulo Travassos who is a member of the team running the Projecto Bico-vermelho project and blog. He wrote:
O "Projecto Bico-vermelho" is about a Choughs conservation project that we start at north of Portugal. There we talk about specie status, how choughs became scarce, point some causes of their low numbers and efforts to help them find nesting places in a Alvão Natural Park. We mention our radio tracking project with chougs and a visit to Islay after being present in the 2nd International Workshop on the Conservation of the Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax), held in the Scottish Agricultural College, Ayr Scotland, which took place on 13rd and September 14th, 2007.
While the blog is in Portuguese there are also two documents in English available for those (like me) who don't understand Portuguese:
Paulo also wrote:
We want start a change of information about Choughs and will try publish more English text regularly, so if you want please feel free and “post “ us your perceptions about the specie.
There are various efforts under way on Islay to help the Choughs, one are disused buildings to be prepared so that they can provide shelter for nesting birds. The RSPB has a few good pages about the Chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) and Chough conservation. Some of the key places on Islay for Choughs are the reserve on The Oa (where it is listed among the Star species) and Smaull Farm. Not to forget the Loch Gruinart reserve and visitor centre, from where it is not far to Ardnave, another good place to spot Choughs.
I'm quite sure that several of my readers know much much more about choughs than me, if you have anything to add please feel free to add it in the comments. Also get in contact with Paulo and the team, their e-mail can be found on the Projecto Bico-vermelho blog.
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