Behavioral Ecology research group

A year ago, we shared the island’s story on our blog:
waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...

🔧🏝️ Maintenance of the Lapwing Island!

Together with colleagues from JČU, AOPK and ČSO, we prepared the MAPE island for the upcoming breeding season. 🪺 We removed old vegetation so that lapwings and other waders can soon return and nest here. 🪶

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#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

🚀 This year’s lapwing migration is really fast!

Half of our “Spanish” team moved 🇪🇸➡️🇫🇷. Yehla, Xena, Májka and Wifina are now in France.
In the Czech Republic 🇨🇿 (just three days after Oktávie), Felicie has arrived too, along with Grácie.

📡 Current map:
waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

🐦📡 Lapwing migration update!
Brusinka and Oktávie flew straight from France to the Czech Republic 🇫🇷➡️🇨🇿.
Andreska, Chárovna, Felicie, Nutela, Grácie and Lulu are currently in Germany 🇩🇪.
Gouda and Drak have already returned to the Czech Republic, and Emulze followed shortly after 🇩🇪➡️🇨🇿.

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

In France 🇫🇷, most of our birds are currently concentrated in the Grand Est region.
Drak (25 Feb) left France, crossed Luxembourg, and is now near Frankfurt 🇩🇪.
Xena moved from Portugal 🇵🇹 and join Živa near Arévalo 🇪🇸.
Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-sen…

🌱The spring migration of our lapwings has begun!

The first one, Gouda, left France 🇫🇷 yesterday night and stopped in Germany 🇩🇪 near Mannheim at 2 pm.
Who will follow next?
Map👉 waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

Map showing habitats where our wintering lapwings were present.

🇪🇸 New blog: Following Wintering Lapwings to Spain

How do Spanish wintering sites differ from those in France? Do lapwings behave differently in a warmer, more steppe-like landscape?

📖Read our new blog here:
waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

📡After 3 months of silence, Trinity sent data again. She arrived in France on 30.10. Since then, she has visited the area around Reims, Sézanne, south of Paris, Tours, and made a detour via Bordeaux toward Toulouse 🇫🇷. At each stop, she stayed for 1-2 weeks before moving on.🗺️

👉 Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

🇫🇷 Dec 25, Grácie headed to Spain and stopped 60 km from the border 🇪🇸. We expected her to continue south after rest and stay there until February. But on Jan 14 she turned back north and settled again near Tours, where she had spent December and also the entire previous winter.🐦

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Xixao in France! 🇫🇷
The male woodcock Xixao, tagged in April in the Brdy Mountains, has sent the data again after a long pause 📡. Since Jan 8, he has been in Normandy near Alençon, active at night on fields near woodland 🌙🌲.

🗺️ Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20738-w...

🇪🇸 During expedition to Spain we visited the wintering sites of Čalamáda, Yehla and Živa in Castile and León, Cirkulárka, Májka, Hvězda and Oliva in Extremadura 🫒, and Jahoda in Castile–La Mancha 🍓. 📖 More insights coming soon in a new blog! 🗺️
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🌾In the CZ, France and across much of Spain, lapwings are most often found in farmland on ploughed fields, stubble and sown crops.
🐂In southwestern Spain (Extremadura), however, they almost exclusively use extensively managed open pastures with grazing sheep, cattle or horses.

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

Oliva in the pastures of Extremadura.

Another place where Oliva is frequently found – a pasture with sheep surrounded by olive trees.

In Extremadura🇪🇸, we met again with Oliva, a lapwing from Káranice. We have been following her since 2024. This year, she is wintering in pastures surrounded by olive groves🫒 near Belvís de Monroy, where we saw her in a flock of 21 lapwings.🐦‍⬛

Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

🌾 Tierra de Campiñas 🐦
The vast cereal steppes between Valladolid, Salamanca and Ávila form a key habitat for lapwings and steppe birds like Great and Little Bustards.
📍 This was also the last known location of lapwing Živa, and today we observed a flock of 65 lapwings here.

📡 We had better luck with Čalamáda, whom we found in a flock of 65 lapwings near the village of Langa.

Finally, we searched for Yehla in a field of rotten potatoes near Donjimeno. 🥔 We saw a flock of 44 lapwings, but not Yehla.

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🇪🇸🐦 We travelled west of Madrid, where some of our tagged lapwings spend the winter.

🪦Near Aldeaseca, we found the almost undamaged transmitter of the dead male Uherák, with only small holes in the harness. A raptor? Who knows…

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

❄️ Due to freezing temperatures, more lapwings are moving further south 🇪🇸. Oliva (Dec 28) and Živa (Jan 1) have already arrived in Spain from France.

Gracie sent data yesterday after a month of silence!! ...and is heading in the same direction.
Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

🪶 Christmas updates from lapwings and woodcocks 🐦

The male lapwing Lucifer started his migration on Christmas Eve 🎄 and is now west of Dijon 🇫🇷.
Map: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20736-s...

The male woodcock Záviš is still staying in the Diamo area near Stráž pod Ralskem 🇨🇿.

#fzpczu #podporenoTACR #programPROSTREDIPROZIVOT

📖 New blog! 🐣
We look at hand-reared lapwing and plover chicks and how they survive after release. The stories show that young waders can be successfully raised and return to the wild.

👉 Read more on our website: waderscope.fzp.czu.cz/en/r-20737-s...