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.
