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SITE NAME
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Khabuika Lake, Russky Zavorot Peninsula, Russia
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| Contact
details (phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| // // Aride Island Nature Reserve, via Grand Anse, Praslin, Seychelles |
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PROJECT DETAILS
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Project name:
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WWT Bewick's Swan Expedition 1992 |
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey:
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Team
size:
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18.06 |
11.08 |
4 |
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WEATHER CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
Spring was long. Although the snow cover was not great it melted slowly as the temperatures were rather low; in May extensive tundra areas were covered with water. The weather in June and the first week of July was unusually cold and windy. Air temperature ranged from 0øC to +10øC, and usually did not exceed 3ø- 4øC; winds (mostly northern and western) often reached storm force. Strong winds off arctic ocean 22.06-27.06, caused flooding of low-lying tundra. From the middle of July to the middle of August the weather was rather warm, and the temperature sometimes reached 20øC. After 10 August it became cooler again (5ø- 7øC). During the whole season there were few rainy days. All seasonal phenology was at least two weeks later than normal.
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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: |
average |
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Breeding conditions:
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Site consists of complex system of pools and larger lakes interspersed by channels and rivers draining E. into Bolvan Bay on W. shore of mouth of river Pechora. Much of the study site consists of wet-sedge meadows but there are also drier lichen/empetrum hummocks and ridges ? and localised patches of dwarf willow and birch. Most ducks, geese and swans in the area nest on the edge (ducks) close to (geese) or at some distance (Bewick's swans) from the pools and lakes.
Numbers of Arctic Foxes Alopex lagopus were greater than in 1991: two or three animals could be observed simultaneously almost every day in July. We considered the breeding success of waders in the coastal tundra areas to have been low. |
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Lemmings were not recorded at all, except for two found in an inhabited building on the coast.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Microtus oeconomus | common |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
| See enclosed document. More detailed information concerning ecology of Bewick's Swans Cygnus columbianus bewickii on the breeding grounds will be published in due course. |
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