Former ornithological activities of W. Haas

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I started my Zoologist-career as bird-watcher and already as schoolboy I wrote some publications on avifaunistic topics. Then my ornithological research had to be restricted to holydays. Some of my former papers are still of interest, for example on traffic losses among birds (data on 1870 dead birds, collected on roads), and on bird migration, especially across Saharan desert. The papers include many new bird records in Central Sahara. I organized excursions into the Sahara including 8 crossings of the desert (see map, voluntary desert rests and enforced desert "rests"). Together with students I collected dying birds of passage, analysed their water- and fat-stores and DDT-residues in the tissues (see methods). The data led us to conclude that small passerine birds had failed because of exhausted fat stores and larger birds because of water deprivation, while their fat reserves were not exhausted. See also a list of some of my ornithological publications.

Migratory birds in the Sahara desert, fotos

(click on icons)

Upupa epops, stones as shelter, not exhausted	Hirundo rustica exhausted, unable to fly (Analysis: normal water index, extremely low fat index)	Gallinago gallinago, resting between rocks	Caprimulgus europaeus, shelter at marking barrel, exhausted
Ciconia ciconia, exhausted, unable for flight longer than 100 meters	Ciconia ciconia, mummies in Tanezrouft, far from normal flyways	Ciconia ciconia,captured and "stored" by braking wing bones	Coturnix coturnix, seeks shelter under car and collapses (Analysis: extremely low water index, high fat index)
Truck wreck as shelter for Streptopelia turtur and Otus scops	24 specimens of S. turtur found shelter in the motor	Hidden below the doves: an Otus scops	Metal sheet as shelter: Alaemon alaudipes attacs resting S. turtur
Streptopelia turtur at a marking barrel, exhausted, unable to fly	Allows catching. Analysis: extremely low water index, high fat index	Burhinus oedicnemus exhausted at track marker	Allows catching. Full fat stores, no DDT-residues in brain and carcasse
Sheet of metal as hide for animals	Under the sheet: Mummies of Ardea purpurea, Oe. oenanthe and a rat, eating from a freshly dead S. turtur	Freshly dead Ardea cinerea	Full fat stores, no residues of DDT in brain and carcasse
Lanius senator uses a marking barrel as wind-shield	Mummy of Lanius senator	L. senator, captured and "stored" by plugging flight feathers	Captured Oenanthe oenanthe are stored by knotting the wings

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