Studying remote sensing is important to take one step back being able to see changes in a whole, because we see them from space. For me, a 4th Gen EAGLE, sometimes the analyses are not enough. This is why I would like to share my story with you, about what I am doing beside my studies when I stop coding for a moment ;-).
Besides being an EAGLE I am also an Ibis (kind of ;-)). I am working for a project, called “Waldrappteam Conservation and Research” aiming to re-establish a migratory population of the endangered Northern Bald Ibis in Europe. This species went extinct in Europe 400 years ago mainly because of illegal hunting and loss of habitat. Young Ibises learn to migrate from adult birds which have been missing for a long time, this is why we raise about 30 chicks by human foster parents every year and train them to follow us behind a small, open plane, a so called ultra light-plane. This summer I took a break semester to be a foster mother myself again and guide 32 young Northern Bald Ibises to their wintering site in Tuscany/Italy. Personally, this is just a dream coming true, feeling the absolute trust the young birds have in you that they even fly beside a plane with you.
At the moment I am partly studying and partly releasing “my” birds. It is becoming more and more exciting that they will be free soon and I am shifting back to analyses. Just this week I equipped the young ibises with GPS tags. This animal movement data helps me to monitor them after their release, official helicopter-mom ;-). Additionally I will be able to do great analyses with the movement data I get. There are many questions we need to answer bringing reintroduction forward. This is what I then just love to do after summer – analysing the birds movement data combined with remote sensing data….finally coding again.
If some of you are interested in also working with movement data of our Northern Bald Ibises or even in becoming part of the project, feel always free to contact me.
Contact: hwehner@waldrapp.eu; or just text me in the EAGLE Signal group!
