My colleague at the university of Amsterdam has successfully tracked Eleanora's falcons on their migration through Africa and has reveled some curious flight behavior.
Eleanora’s falcons are raptors that migrate from Alegranza to Madagascar and back, preferably with soaring flight. During dawn they ascent to altitudes varying from 2000m-5000m AGL (5000m only occurs with profitable winds). We think that there must be a strong reason to ascent and that this has to do with visual orientation.
He is particularly interested to hear from other pilots who have operated in this region to better understand flight conditions en route, inparticular about the sight distances at high altitudes in the tropics and Sahel or Sahara.. Even if you have never flown in Africa, the soaring and ascending flight behavior is fascinating to any airman..please take a look at the attached and feel free to distribute widely.
For an example of a soaring EF use Chrome or Firefox to see:
Migrating Eleanora's Falcon 20130419_11:00-13:30_t1013 - Doarama
Prof. Willem Bouten Computational Geo-Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam Sciencepark 904, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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