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RESPONDENT
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Pavel Tomkovich
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SITE NAME
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Lavrentia settlement, Chukotski Peninsula, Russia
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (495)6294474/(495)629-48-25(fax, for P. Tomkovich) // pst@zmmu.msu.ru // Zoological Museum, Bolshaya Nikitskaya St., 6, Moscow, 125009, Russia
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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International Arctic Expedition of Inst. of Ecology and Evolution
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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15.05
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31.07
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7
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| The area was visited twice in 2002: from 15-21 May and from 18-31 July. Spring was early and snow free patches occupied 5% of the area on 15 May, expanding to 50% near settlement. Clear water of the Bering Strait neighboured to ice-covered Lavrentia Bay. Sandhill Cranes were actively migrating to the west on 15 May. Pintails, Teals and Western Sandpipers were recorded, and some Snow Buntings were already in pairs. Cotton-grass flowers and active spiders were seen on 19 May, and Western Sandpipers initiated territorial displays and pair formation. Summer was warm and dry. First berries of bog bilberry ripened by 25 July.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
low
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Breeding conditions:
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Arctic Foxes and owls were not seen, but dogs were frequently seen in the settlement and its vicinity. Peregrine Falcon, Rough-legged Buzzard and Arctic Skua were rarely seen, while records of Ravens and, particularly, Herring and Glaucous gulls were common. Pomarine Skuas were common spring migrants. Among birds of prey a single pair of Peregrine Falcons presumably nested on island in the bay. Juvenile Long-tailed Skua was barely flying in late July, thus providing single evidence of skua breeding in the area.
Ringed and Semipalmated plovers alarming near broods, having at least 2-3 chicks at fledging, were not rare in late July on the wide gravel cape near settlement, airport and deserted part of the village. Broods of Red-necked Phalaropes, Turnstones, Red-necked and Temminck's stints and Ruffs were solitary. Fledglings of Western Sandpipers, Pied and Yellow wagtails, Lapland and Snow buntings were common by the second half of July, while juvenile migrating waders started to gather in flocks in the last week of July. Tundra on hills was populated at low density. Pacific Golden Plovers were most common there, although Sandhill Cranes with broods, Red-necked and Rock sandpipers, Dunlins, Red-throated Pipits, Wheatears and Lapland Buntings were seen in small numbers. A nest of Pintail was also found. Common Eiders were still incubating on islands of Lavrentia Bay, but one brood was seen.
Judging by frequency of brood records reproductive success was likely low in waterfowl and from average to high in waders and passerines in the settlement vicinity.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Lemmings were not seen, but their tracks appeared from under snow during melting on hill slopes. Juvenile Long-tailed Skua eructated vole in late July. Arctic Ground Squirrels were regularily seen on the settlement outskirts.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
| Data on numbers of Ringed Plover and Western Sandpiper were prepared for publication.
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