PRESENTATION:
Hello everyone, now I’m going to talk about my research project: Bee-eaters at Fluvià’s River.
WHY THIS THEME?
First of all, I knew that it was going to be more practic than a teoric one. I chose the bee-eaters because I’ve been a naturalist and birdlover since I was little. Also because this birds are bright and colorful, and in every guide of birds I found that it was so easy to see them in liberty, and I only saw them one or two times.
I was interested in extracting conclusions by my own notes and observations of these birds in a delimated land of Fluvià’s river, knowing their ethology and habits.
MY OBJECTIVES:
My objectives, at the beggining of the project, were:
On one hand, to know the ethology and the systematic of this specie, on the other hand, to know and study the colonies of bee-eaters in an area of Fluvià’s river, and finally contrast and relate my conclusions and observations with the preavious searched theory.
METHODOLOGY:
This project is based in my own observations done between May and September this year 2011 and the subsequent conclusions about these birds, that are really mine and scientific.
THE BEE-EATERS:
Let’s go talk about these animals. They’re gregarious birds, it means that they are sociable and they go all together. They are very eye-catching because of their colours. Moreover, they’re exclusively insectivorous and migratory. They stay for the autumn and winter in Africa. In May and June they come at south-Europe, and in September they return to Africa again. They populate all the Iberic peninsula, excepting the territories with high height.
They perfore they own nests in the slopes made by the rivers, or indirectly humans creating new roads and tracks. They’re always horizontal, and at the end of the tunel it is a chamber with the eggs, that can be between four and seven. A curiosity is that they can remove 13 kilos of land.
I’ve studied mainly two areas: la Gravera de Valveralla and la Pista de motocròs de Ventalló. I’ve noticed that they’re more nests near Sant Pere Pescador, where I live, but they’re not occupied or there are other animals. Finally, I’ve counted 150 individuals of bee-eaters with the two colonies.
DIFFERENCIATION BETWEEN MALES, FEMALES AND LITTLE BEE-EATERS:
This is a task that is so difficult, so most of the times I had to resort to the photos I took everyday. If we wanted to know how much of them were there exactly, I would need some speccialists, and I couldn’t do it.
PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS:
Now I’ll explain some of my personal conclusions that I think they’re important:
• They prefer zones where humans don’t interfere in, but this presence is not a letal condicion of their living. They only need slopes to perfore, nearly water current, and insects abundance. They adapt very good to human activity or presence.
• It’s necessary a lot of insects to feed them and their chicks, specially when they grow up, so the water needs to be very clean.
• The bee-eaters have aproximately six chicks for one pair of them. This triple the first population. They have a great reproduction, so it’s a good indicative of their health and environment.
• They usually stay in dead trees or somewhere a little higher where they can locate their insects to eat, that’s very essencial.
• Their diet is based in dragonflies in 70%, because they are very near the river, where they abound. In bees in 20%, and the 10% that rests are other types of insects, like beetles and beautiflies.
FINAL CONCLUSIONS:
In my opinion, this project is important because it gives information about our environment and these incredible birds, and also it encourages people to be more respectful with them.
Moreover, I’ve reached my objectives: now, I know a lot about the behavior of the bee-eaters, especially and exclusively in Fluvià’s river, and I’ve could compare it with my theory. There’s a thing that I will do, because I think that is important: I’ll continue my research of these birds, complementing this season with another one in 2012.
I’ve dedicated a lot of days and hours to the observation of these birds, to the practical work, watching their behavior and extracting solid conclusions about their life and habits. Now, I’m more respectful with nature, because I’ve seen all the wild life that we have around us that I ignored before.
Anyway, it has been a very useful and interesting work to do, specially the practical part of the project. I think that documenting and giving new information about the bee-eaters of Fluvià’s river (that surely haven’t been studied before) is what has given me more gratification.
This is all, very thanks for your attention. If you have any questions, I’ll answer them, thank you.
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I've uploaded the powerpoint of the presentation because I couldn't do it with the video. I've had to remove some photos of the presentation because it was too big to upload it at the web... anyway, it's here!! Hope you like it! ;)
I think that my presentation has been so good, a little nervous, like I've always been when I'm in front of people talking, but in my opinion, my note is a 9. ^^
Paula.
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