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RESPONDENT
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Pertti Koskimies
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SITE NAME
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Finnish Lapland, Finland
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| +358 9 8135 946(phone,fax)/mbl. +358 40 7216 764 // pertti.koskimies@kolumbus.fi // Vanha Myllylammentie 88, FIN-02400 Kirkkonummi, Finland
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
The spring of 2004 was fairly early, and the snow melt on many fjell tops in April. May and early June, however, were considerably cold, and in mid- and late summer the weather remained cool and rainy for long periods.
The amount of mosquitoes was normal after a few years with very low populations. A heavy outbreak of the autumnal moth Epirrita autumnata destroyed all the leaves in birch forests in an area of hundreds of square kilometres in Enontekio, NW Lapland.
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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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Willow Grouse populations increased in numbers the third successive year, and the species was exceptionally numerous all over Lapland. Population sizes have been as high in many areas several decades ago.
My work concentrated on birds of prey. The number of breeding Gyrfalcon pairs was higher than during any other year of the present monitoring project since the early 1990s. Breeding success was very good, with an extremely rare brood of five full-grown fledglings in northernmost Sweden, near the Finnish border.
The Rough-legged Buzzard, however, was very scarce due to lack of microtines. Tens of pairs were seen to build nests very early in late April, but in June almost all of them had abandoned their nests. Of the roughly one hundred known breeding territories from recent years in my Gyrfalcon study area, less than ten were inhabited. No breeding Long-tailed Skuas, Hawk Owls or other vole-specialists were found although I was in the field in all parts of Northern Lapland.
Metsahallitus, the responsible governmental administrative body for monitoring of the Peregrine Falcon and the Golden Eagle, reported one of the best years for both of the species during recent years. Both the population size and average number of young were at top level. One pair of the Golden Eagle raised three young.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| The populations of voles crashed almost totally during winter and spring, leading to one of the poorest years during recent decades.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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