Transactions
of the Azov-Black Sea Ornithological Station
Current status of birds of prey in the Ingulets river basin.
Milobog Y.V., Vetrov V.V., Strigunov V.I.
The present data on species composition, territorial distribution, number dynamics and biology of birds of prey are still sporadic and poor. We took an attempt to fill these blanks and from stationary investigations during 1980-90s we have changed to total counts in 2001-2002. In the present article we give only a part of the gathered data, referring to the Ingulets river basin. There is the information about 16 species of birds of prey, recorded in their breeding period.
The main material was gathered over the period 2001-2002 during a survey of the Ingulets river basin (S=14.9 thousand of km2), stretching over the territory of Kirovograd, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev and Kherson regions (fig.l). During two field seasons 1,500 km were ridden by "Niva" car, not including pedestrian routes. 339 pairs of birds of prey were registered in a total. An observation was considered to be breeding one if the bird of prey was met in the breeding habitat, with apparently breeding behaviour, with food, with its brood, etc.
Number estimation was carried out, basing on the birds of prey observations, presence of habitats available for breeding and working out of cartographical data (maps with the scale 1:100 000 and 1:200 000). Preliminary results of the expedition 2001 have been already published (Vetrov V.V, Milobog Y. V., Strigunov V.I., 2001). Materials on distribution and number of Marsh Harrier were minutely elucidated in other publication (Vetrov V.V, Milobog V.V, Strigunov V.I., 2003).
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