Monitoring of Long-legged Buzzard in Mykolaiv Region in 2009
We have been carried out the monitoring of Long-legged Buzzard in Mykolaiv area since 2000.
In 2009 8 of 10 traced cases of breeding were successful (one breeding case was informed by Pavlo Panchenko). Reasons of unsuccessful breeding attempts were the following: in one case birds abandoned the nests, probably because of disturbance (the vicinity of Ochakov City); in another case the old nest, existed for many years, turned out to be strongly inclined, and under the tree we discovered a fallen chick in the second downy plumage. We place the chick back to the repaired nest but its further fortune is unknown.
As a part of nests were examined from ground we didn’t always manage to identify the exact number of chicks. In general, the breeding success of the species was average – 2.1 chicks per a successfully breeding pair. One nest contained 4 fledglings, other – 3, all the rest had 1-2 fledglings. One of the nests had 2 chicks and 2 addled eggs. The highest number of chicks had the pair nested near the colony of the spotted sousliks.
According to data of previous years (since 2000), averagely 2.2 fledglings left nests, at this 80% of traced breeding attempts were successful.
Konstantin Redinov, Regional Landscape Park ‘Kinburnska Spit’