Kolguev Island is an important breeding place for arctic birds placed in the Barentssea. Proably one third of arctic breeding geese of the western palearctic is breeding on this island. But also lots of wader species, migrating through the wadden sea, is breeding in this region. So in the next summer seasons of 2011 and 2012 we`ll continue our research in cooperation with <LINK http://www.vogelwarte-helgoland.de>"Institut für Vogelforschung"</link> (Wilhelmshaven) on breeding geese and start new studies on Grey Plovers and Long-tailed ducks.
We thank for the financial support 2011/12 to:
During this summer we will continue our studies on breeding biology of geese. We`re focussing on the influence of weather and climate as well as food supply on the breeding success of geese. Furthermore we`ll study how the body condition of arrving pairs will influence the nesting success. In early august we`ll catch geese again and colour-mark them with individually coded legrings or neckbands. So geese can be observed in the wintering areas and along their flyway and we`ll get important informations about their fate.
Lots of the wader species using the wadden sea as a stopover site breeding in the arctic and migrate to northern africa or further south. In details most of this migration is unknown and technical possibilities beginning to allow us more intensive studies. Trends of numbers of staging waders in the wadden sea show us how important more detailed knowledge about wader migration is needed. So, in summer we start studies on Grey Plovers which will be equipped with dataloggers saving their positions for the following season. In summer 2012 we`ll catch the birds again to get the datalogger back and analyse the data.
Long-tailed ducks breeding at small glacial lakes in the arctic. Here they feed on small shells and other aquatic animals. During winter they stay on open sea, mainly on the Baltic Sea. As counts during the last years show, there might be a demographic problem in this species: in the counts more males then female were seen, the percentage of juveniles was rather low. So, is this problem real? Or do the female winter somewhere else? In last years we started extensive studies on Long-tailed ducks. Now we`ll increase our effort and find out more about breeding success and migration route of the birds. For this we`ll catch some birds and track them during next winter.
