Returning to Makares islets for the Yelkouan Shearwater

Last April 2024 Hellenic Ornithology Society (HOS) fitted satellite transmitters on Yelkouan Shearwaters foraging in the Gulf of Kalloni. Tracking one of them revealed that it breeds in a -well-known to us- colony of the central Aegean, named ‘Makares’.

A few days ago, HOS team members of project #LIFEMareNatura visited again the Makares archipelago, with one main objective: to tag ten Yelkouan Shearwaters with satellite transmitters at the end of the incubation period which will allow us to evaluate if the birds of this colony move back and forth to the Black Sea following the same patterns as the birds of the Dodecanese and Gyaros do. Our preliminary data confirm that the Yelkouan Shearwaters from this colony also seem to prefer the rich fishing grounds of the Black Sea, alternating their trips with shorter local trips.