English summary 2010

English summary

Red kite population evolution in Navarra (northern Spain)

Navarra is a region of around 10.000 km² located in the northern part of Spain, along the Spanish/French border, and to the south of the Pyrenees. The navarran population of Red Kites was first thoroughly monitored twice in the 90’s during the 92/93 and 93/94 wintering seasons and then continuously counted in the 2000’s for the last 10 winters.

The results of the last wintering season are presented in this report. The average of the population estimate for the navarran population for the 12 census done is 2.265. The total count for the 2009/2010 wintering period was only 1.599 individuals what represents 33 % less than the average. It also represents a decrease of 18 % versus the precedent year and 40 % since the maximum value obtained in 05/06.

The navarran wintering population of Red kite is distributed among 20-21 roosting areas, each one having a variable number of roosting places.

This winter season 2 red kites were found death in a wind-farm and the trees supporting two roosting places were cut during the season, forcing the birds to move somewhere else. This population seems to be very dependent on the public dumping areas and this is the potential reason for the significant changes observed in the distribution of the kites inside the region in the last few winters when several dumping areas were closed and dumping activities concentrated in a few places.

	census count	population estimate
92/93	2181	2290
93/94	2147	2254	-1,56%
00/01	2142	2249	-0,23%
01/02	2026	2229	-0,91%
02/03	1673	2008	-9,92%
03/04	2522	2522	25,62%
04/05	2137	2244	-11,03%
05/06	2615	2667	18,87%
06/07	2175	2240	-16,01%
07/08	1894	1951	-12,92%
08/09	1866	1959	0,43%
09/10	1539	1613	-18,38%
Average	2151	2265