Migration of raptors in the vicinity of Kyiv in autumn 2008
Sunday, April 12th, 2009 Posted in Field researches, Migrations, Photos | No Comments »Weather conditions of autumn 2008 have caused mass and intensity passage of Falconiformes, which allows us to treat this migration season as unusual.
We carried out observations on a permanent plot near the village of Pogreby (Brovary district of Kyiv region) located in the floodplain of Desna River (Domashevsky, 2003). Compared with previous counts an observation point was moved 4 km closer to the mouth of Desna River, which connects with the Dnieper floodplain (earlier, observations in this area were of rare periodicity). Thus, we have tried to cover as comprehensively as possible the coalescence of two migratory streams of the birds, which migrated across these rivers floodplains. Downstream the Desna mouth the floodplains merge into one floodplain of the Dnieper (see the map).
The observation point (OP) was located in the area, well-visited with people, especially at weekends. The suburb of Kyiv, bordered with high-rise new buildings, stretched 2.5 km toward the south-east of OP, cottage buildings were even closer. Territory near OP was of open type (abandoned agricultural lands, haymakings and pastures) with small islets of forests, forest belts and solitary trees. In depressions there were small lakelets.
Observations of marked birds
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 Posted in Migrations, Reviews | No Comments »There came a period of bird spring migration, and again we’re searching the sky for silhouettes of our favourites. Quite often we don’t guess that our observations might give an unexpected result. During last decades an individual marking of birds of prey by using colour rings, wing tags or ‘windows’ on wings is rather common-spread. These are the elements which should be paid attention when observing birds, also during migrations. A camera may be very useful as modern technical devices give a possibility to take a picture of a bird, and then have a better look at necessary features. Therefore we can advise not only gaze at flying birds, but take a picture.
First three photo are taken from the paper: Dravecký M, Sellis U, Bergmanis U, Dombrovski V, Lontkowski J, Maciorowski G, Maderič B, Meyburg B-U, Mizera T, Stój M, Treinys R & Wójciak J 2008: Colour ringing of the Spotted Eagles (Aquila pomarina, Aquila clanga and their hybrids) in Europe – a review. Slovak Rapt J 2: 37–52.
The colour marking of birds in Ukraine was not provided yet, but basing on migratory routes, you can meet the raptors marked in other countries, as follows:
