Specialists from the Northern Eurasian Anseriformes Working Group arrived in Anadyr to continue their census work using small aircraft. This is the third time the ornithologists have flown to the region. Each season, they focus their efforts on several of the most pressing projects on rare species: the common (Pacific) eider, the barnacle goose, and the eastern taiga bean goose. Other animals, such as the bowhead whale and beluga whale, also come into their field of vision.
Scientists are trying to identify the dynamics of the numbers and distribution of populations, and if possible, the threats to a particular species.
– This season we have several projects on a large territory, – says Sofya Rozenfeld, PhD in biology and senior researcher at the Russian Bird Ringing Center of the A. N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. – We started with the Magadan Region, where we conducted the first census of the common eider in the Sea of Okhotsk. Previously, employees of the Institute of Biological Problems of the North of the Russian Academy of Sciences only carried out ground-based studies, which indicate that the number of Pacific common eiders is declining. At the same time, we recorded encounters with whales for a project on the bowhead whale, which is being carried out by employees of the IEE of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Then we conducted an aerial survey of the Koryak Nature Reserve (Parapolsky Dol site) and the adjacent Ramsar sites. Such work has not been done in this area for about 20 years. This territory is extremely important as a breeding and molting site for the eastern taiga bean goose, which is listed in the Red Book of Russia. We managed to conduct a virtually total census of molting flocks and broods of many species of anseriformes. We were based in the Kamchatka village of Tilichiki.
The ornithologists flew through the village of Vaegi to Anadyr, visiting on the way a part of the Lower Anadyr Lowland that was not fully surveyed last year. Several routes are planned from the district capital. According to scientists, it is necessary to study the coast and adjacent lagoons of Kresta Bay to get a complete picture of the state of the white-necked goose in Chukotka. In 2021, the entire northern coast of the region has already been studied, and in 2023 - the Meynypilgyn lake-river system and the Lower Anadyr Lowland (KS wrote about this work in the issue of August 4 last year). Having received the missing data, ornithologists will be able to estimate the size of the Alaskan population of white-necked goose molting in Chukotka, which is important for clarifying the international conservation status of this species. Then, specialists plan to re-conduct a census of the Anadyr beluga. Let us recall that in 2023, in parallel with the observation of rare and endangered bird species, it was possible to conduct the first ever aerial survey of the summer reproductive aggregation of the Anadyr beluga whale herd, the question of the current state of the resources of which remains open.
- After this work, we are moving back south from Anadyr, but we will devote more time to searching for whales. In July, we were in a hurry to catch the birds moulting or with broods, in the second half of August there will be no more rush, - concluded Sofia Rosenfeld.
For flights, scientists use a float plane with the individual name "Sterkh C1". The model itself is called SUPERSTOL, an abbreviation for “Short take off and landing”. The owner and pilot of this machine is pilot Georgy Kirtayev. Sofia Rosenfeld works with him on board.
The results of last year's aerial survey have been processed and are now at the analysis stage. However, ornithologists are already concerned about the low numbers of all eider species. A change in the birds' food supply is named as a possible reason. Even greater concerns are caused by the situation with the white-necked goose and the black goose, the Asian population of which winters in Japan in Hokkaido. Both species are especially protected and are listed in the Red Book of Russia, but according to the results of work in Chukotka, their numbers were extremely low.
Related materials:
Far North: "Aerial survey is taken of birds and whales"