January 2010: There have been no further movements detected of Karen or Mustapha during the end of December or the first week of January 2010. Karen was last known to be near Conakry and Mustapha near Baoma. There have been no further fixes from Rudi, this was a similar situation to that of the 2008/2009 'winter', when no signals were received between the end of December and March. We hope that we will receive a signal in the coming months so that we can identify his location.

December 2009: Both Karen and Mustapha remain settled in their respective 'wintering' areas throughout the month. For the third 'winter' running Karen has chosen to stay near to Conakry in Guinea. Meanwhile, Mustapha is back near Baoma in Sierra Leone for the second consecutive 'winter'. In November Rudi was known to be along the Senegal River, close to where he was last winter. Unfortunately, we received no signals from him throughout December, this was a similar situation to last year. There were no further fixes from Lena in December.

November 2009: Heron Karen returned to her traditional northern wintering site in Guinea and remained there throughout November. This rice field area close to Conakry, is the same site she used the previous two northern winters. Mustapha remained in the wetlands close to Baoma in Sierra Leone for the entire month. Rudi has made a short move along the Senegal River back to the same area where he spent last northern winter. This is part of the Senegal River close to Dagana where Rudi was known to be between early October and the end of December before we lost contact with him until his northward migration in March. We hope that this year we will be able to follow him throughout the northern winter period in Africa. So far we know that he remains here into the fouth week of November.

October 2009: All of the herons are south of the Sahara. In general, there were no real movements during the first few days of October. Mustapha, however, made further progress south and reached Sierra Leone by 4 October; last year he was in the same area on 6 October. During the middle of October, few of the herons made any significant movements. Exceptions were Mustapha, who returned to the same area close to Baoma in Sierra Leone. Karen also moved, to Tilogne in Senegal and in the last week of October, Rudi made a short trip along the Senegal River to Dagana and the same area where he spent the winter of 2008.

September 2009: All herons arrived safely south of the Sahara. Karen was the last one to depart from the Netherlands and arrived at 18 September in South Mauritania. Karen was our first heron to have been equipped with a satellite transmitter. This bird has already given us a lot of new information on habitat use, site tenacity and routes that Purple Herons use on their annual migration. Within our project, this is the third time one of our birds has crossed the Sahara successfully.

During the last two non-breeding seasons she stayed at the same area in Guinea. We will see if she will use the same area again. Additionally, Karen has led us to discover a new breeding colony site in the Netherlands. We found about 20 pairs, which account for about 3% of the Dutch population. All herons are at this moment in the Sahel most of them at the northern edge at temporary wetlands. It is interesting to see how close these herons are to each other at this moment. Fortunately there have been some rains in this region providing some wadis and oases with water. We will now see if the herons will move further south. It will be interesting to get information on site tenacity as we will follow some herons already a second or even a third non-breeding (northern winter) period.

August 2009: The first Purple Heron took off for its flight towards Africa. Rudi left the Netherlands at a day with reasonable migration of Purple Herons southwards. At some bird observatories more than hundred migrants were counted at Saturday 29th. In the morning of 31 August Rudi was already in northern Spain. He more or less took the same route as in 2008. In 2008 he stayed some time in the Ebro Delta, but he skipped Spain and at 3 September the heron was flying over Morocco towards the Sahara.

July 2009: Just as we gave the news about the northward travel of Lena to Mali, a few days later the bird moved back to Ivory Coast again! On the 21 July the heron was back in Ivory coast. We even were confused if the data were correct but some intermediate points and more than one point in Mali confirmed its movements and short trip to Mali.

Last week Lena started moving again! The heron moved northwards to Mali again, just like last year. The others are still at their breeding colonies in the Netherlands. The journeys that each of the herons made to get back to their breeding colony can be viewed on their individual pages, which can be accessed via the "Birds We Follow" drop-down menu above. Through following the birds' migration routes and timing we can gain important information about the network of wetlands that this species uses throughout the year. Not all of the herons have made the journey back to the breeding colony this year. Lena has so far remained in her non-breeding area in the Ivory Coast, in the area where she had spent much of last non-breeding (northern winter) period. Further signals show that she remains in that area, but unfortunately, we have yet to hear from Terra Nova.

January 2010: There have been no further movements detected of Karen or Mustapha during the end of December or the first week of January 2010. Karen was last known to be near Conakry and Mustapha near Baoma. There have been no further fixes from Rudi, this was a similar situation to that of the 2008/2009 'winter', when no signals were received between the end of December and March. We hope that we will receive a signal in the coming months so that we can identify his location.

December 2009: Both Karen and Mustapha remain settled in their respective 'wintering' areas throughout the month. For the third 'winter' running Karen has chosen to stay near to Conakry in Guinea. Meanwhile, Mustapha is back near Baoma in Sierra Leone for the second consecutive 'winter'. In November Rudi was known to be along the Senegal River, close to where he was last winter. Unfortunately, we received no signals from him throughout December, this was a similar situation to last year. There were no further fixes from Lena in December.

November 2009: Heron Karen returned to her traditional northern wintering site in Guinea and remained there throughout November. This rice field area close to Conakry, is the same site she used the previous two northern winters. Mustapha remained in the wetlands close to Baoma in Sierra Leone for the entire month. Rudi has made a short move along the Senegal River back to the same area where he spent last northern winter. This is part of the Senegal River close to Dagana where Rudi was known to be between early October and the end of December before we lost contact with him until his northward migration in March. We hope that this year we will be able to follow him throughout the northern winter period in Africa. So far we know that he remains here into the fouth week of November.

October 2009: All of the herons are south of the Sahara. In general, there were no real movements during the first few days of October. Mustapha, however, made further progress south and reached Sierra Leone by 4 October; last year he was in the same area on 6 October. During the middle of October, few of the herons made any significant movements. Exceptions were Mustapha, who returned to the same area close to Baoma in Sierra Leone. Karen also moved, to Tilogne in Senegal and in the last week of October, Rudi made a short trip along the Senegal River to Dagana and the same area where he spent the winter of 2008.

September 2009: All herons arrived safely south of the Sahara. Karen was the last one to depart from the Netherlands and arrived at 18 September in South Mauritania. Karen was our first heron to have been equipped with a satellite transmitter. This bird has already given us a lot of new information on habitat use, site tenacity and routes that Purple Herons use on their annual migration. Within our project, this is the third time one of our birds has crossed the Sahara successfully.

During the last two non-breeding seasons she stayed at the same area in Guinea. We will see if she will use the same area again. Additionally, Karen has led us to discover a new breeding colony site in the Netherlands. We found about 20 pairs, which account for about 3% of the Dutch population. All herons are at this moment in the Sahel most of them at the northern edge at temporary wetlands. It is interesting to see how close these herons are to each other at this moment. Fortunately there have been some rains in this region providing some wadis and oases with water. We will now see if the herons will move further south. It will be interesting to get information on site tenacity as we will follow some herons already a second or even a third non-breeding (northern winter) period.

August 2009: The first Purple Heron took off for its flight towards Africa. Rudi left the Netherlands at a day with reasonable migration of Purple Herons southwards. At some bird observatories more than hundred migrants were counted at Saturday 29th. In the morning of 31 August Rudi was already in northern Spain. He more or less took the same route as in 2008. In 2008 he stayed some time in the Ebro Delta, but he skipped Spain and at 3 September the heron was flying over Morocco towards the Sahara.

July 2009: Just as we gave the news about the northward travel of Lena to Mali, a few days later the bird moved back to Ivory Coast again! On the 21 July the heron was back in Ivory coast. We even were confused if the data were correct but some intermediate points and more than one point in Mali confirmed its movements and short trip to Mali.

Last week Lena started moving again! The heron moved northwards to Mali again, just like last year. The others are still at their breeding colonies in the Netherlands. The journeys that each of the herons made to get back to their breeding colony can be viewed on their individual pages, which can be accessed via the "Birds We Follow" drop-down menu above. Through following the birds' migration routes and timing we can gain important information about the network of wetlands that this species uses throughout the year. Not all of the herons have made the journey back to the breeding colony this year. Lena has so far remained in her non-breeding area in the Ivory Coast, in the area where she had spent much of last non-breeding (northern winter) period. Further signals show that she remains in that area, but unfortunately, we have yet to hear from Terra Nova.