At the age of twelve I developed a profound interest in the ecology of European Nightjars (Caprimulgus europaeus), and I promised myself to study these mysterious birds as I grew older. Another twelve years later I was very fortunate to write my master thesis on the foraging behaviour of nightjars at KULeuven. In 2014, I was granted a PhD-candidate position at Hasselt University which allowed me to continue my work on the life of these crepuscular birds.
Hakan Karaardic from Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University in Turkey provides insight into three studies he is engaged in. Please read on to learn about the Alpine Swift geolocator project, how to sort out the subspecies of Barn Swallow in Turkey and ringing birds with students and their teachers. Migration is the linking pin.
The 14th Pan-African Ornithological Congress took place in Dakar, Senegal in October. There was inevitably a lot of scientific interest and discussion about migratory landbirds and the MLSG was involved in a lot of this.