BIRD enthusiasts are in for a treat, with more migratory birds, including some rarely species, flocking to Nigeria from Europe, especially barn Swallows.
These birds have been coming to Boje for many years unannounced until it was reported in The Guardian in the early nineties. These swallows fly from the UK to South Africa and then back again with a stopover in Ebakken-Boje, Boki Local Government Area of Cross River State in South South Nigeria.
The birds stop at Ebakke-Boje to rest and continue their journey. The Italian Swallows according to conservationists, come to Nigeria early and leave back to Italy while the British Swallows come to Nigeria later through South Africa and back to Britain. Their arrival in Britain from Africa heralds the end of the cold season and the British are always happy for it.
In the past when the birds arrive, the natives will hunt it for meat until conservationists intervened and this intervention has eventually produced the first ever mist netting and ringing of barn swallows by local communities at Ebakken-Boje, Cross River
The Country Director, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Mr. Andrew Dunn said “the ringing and netting in the state was carried out from March18-22, 2013 by four local ringers and supervised by WCS”. Mr. Bassey Emmanuel of the WCS was the team leader.
He said, “the exercise included four dawn and four dusk capture sessions at a nocturnal roost site at Ebakken-Boje, on the edge of Afi Mountain Wildlife sanctuary, Cross River State, Nigeria. A total of 2,570 barn swallows were ringed. Nine barn swallows previously ringed in six European countries (Italy, Spain, Holland, France, Croatia and UK) were recovered. This is the first time that a swallow ringed in the UK has been recovered and released at this site. The ringing exercise was funded by Professor Nicola Saino of the University of Milan and Pierfrancesco Micheloni of ISPRA, Bologna and supervised by WCS”.
According to him, the objective of the ringing and netting is to continue the swallow ringing activity Mr. P. Micheloni established, provide refresher training for local ringers within the Ebakken community and sample the swallow roost at a different period of the year (normally only sampled in January).
He said this ringing and netting programme will be of immensed benefits to the communities and the state as employment would be provided and the state can establish a tourism site as for a long time the State’s Tourism Bureau has been proposing on this. But with this programme now on ground, he said the tourism site can be developed attracting large number of tourists who will come in and pay entry fee to the community as it is done in Rwanda and some other tourism sites.
To achieve this, Dunn suggested that the Cross River Tourism Bureau should collaborate more with the Ebakken community to put in place necessary facilities at the roost such as eco-lodge, and standard entry fee, to boost the tourism potential of the area and there should be more training on advance ringing procedures for the Boje ringing team.
He stated that the ringing exercise lasted from 18th to 22nd March 2013, with 8 ringing sessions, (4 dawn and 4 dusk capture sessions) and “in all 2,570 barn swallows were captured using the mist nets and ringed. During the exercise we recovered nine barn swallows previously ringed in six European countries. The recoveries were subjected to a few standard morphological observations such as recording the progress of molt of the wing feathers, observe subcutaneous fat deposit and others. We also captured and released resident and migratory birds such as the blue-headed dove, bee-eater, hawk, weaver birds and willow warbler”.
According to him, “barn swallows (Hirundo rustica) are long-distance swift flying migratory birds. They are small and aerially insectivorous. They spend the autumn in Europe breeding and winter in sub-Saharan Africa. The barn swallows start arriving in Africa in September and return to Europe in April, they undergo a single annual molt, mostly in the African winter period. One of the places barn swallows spend their winter in Africa is a nocturnal roost in Ebakken (Boje) community in Boki LGA of Cross River State, Nigeria. Ebakken is an agrarian forested rural community; the community is also blessed with patches of hilly grassland which serves as a nocturnal swallow roost.
“The roost is managed by the Ebakken community, this roost host millions of barn swallows each winter period (dry season in Nigeria), available records show that most of the barn swallows are from western and central European countries. Pierfrancesco Micheloni has been ringing barn swallows at this roost for Istituto Superiore per la Protezione la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA) in conjunction with Ozzano ringing station of Bologna, Italy for about fifteen years, gathering useful scientific data for research purposes. In collaboration with WCS, Ebakken community and other relevant conservation stakeholders, Mr. Micheloni trained a team of local ringers to build local capacity, promote the conservation of the site and consolidate the scientific data collection at the site”.
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