News

This January work has started to improve nesting sites for lesser kestrels in the following churches: San Vicente the Martyr in San Vicente de Alcántara, San Mateo in Alburquerque and San Bartolomé in Jerez de los Caballeros. All this work is part of the Action C1 Improving nest sites in buildings of heritage value in the urban SPAs of Extremadura in the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project.

As part of action A6 nest boxes are being manufactured industrially by the partner Prefabricados Extremadura 2002 and are available for installation in colonies of lesser kestrels.

Once the design phase was over, undertaken primarily by DEMA, testing was carried out in laboratories by INTROMAC, a partner in the LIFE project responsible for new materials as well as in the Church of the Purification in the SPA (Lesser kestrel colonies of Almendralejo”. The nest boxes developed in the framework of the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project are now being produced and are ready for installation. 

The director of the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project, Atanasio Fernández García, participated, giving a talk “LIFE-ZEPAURBAN:  conservation activities in lesser kestrel colonies in Extremadura” focused on the work underway in the project on buildings of heritage value.

We have explored the background of the word “cernícalo” and the origin of the epithet naumanni, now let us look at why the word “primilla” and other names.

In the middle of June, the release programme of lesser kestrel chicks started, as planned in Action C.3. “Captive-breeding and reinforcement of lesser kestrel colonies at risk of disappearance”.

During the breeding season that has just finished, lesser kestrels that were carrying GPS transmitters have provided a large amount of data.

The large volume of data provided from breeding lesser kestrels marked with GPS transmitters in the colonies of Acedera, Casa de La Enjarada (Cáceres) and Trujillo as part of action A2 of LIFE ZEPARURBAN (Study and characterisation of feeding habitats in the urban SPAs and roosts in Extremadura), will provide detail on the daily activity cycles of the species and how these vary between the sexes and during the breeding season.

Within the actions of the Life ZEPAURBAN project, specifically in E4 (“Image and communication of the project”) for which Laruinagrafica is responsible, is the installation of external information panels (notice boards) in each of the 19 urban SPAs that are included in the project.

Next 24th November there will be VIII Meeting of the Bloggers of Extremadura at the headquarters of the Xavier de Salas Foundation in Trujillo.

The use of cork helps to comply with one of the objectives of the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project: to develop stronger and safer nest boxes for the species at a lower cost than at present.

The lesser kestrel is an original and different resource for tourism that exists in your locality. Now you can benefit from its presence to improve your own product in a simple way, without cost. We recommend that you participate, in a simple way, in the product that we are creating. Here is the initial information that you need, and we can explain how to register.

Technicians from the General Directorate of the Environment and the General Directorate of Libraries, Museums and Cultural Heritage have continued their visits to the buildings that will be part of the forthcoming programme in the action C1 Improving nest sites in buildings of heritage value in the urban SPAs of Extremadura. On this occasion they have visited the church of San Bartolomé in Jerez de los Caballeros, as well as the Parador of Zafra, both buildings for which there are plans for work in the LIFE-ZEPAURBAN project.