Branta Issues > Issue №5 (2002)

About birds, not connected with large water bodies on their wintering grounds, according to counts taken in the south of Ukraine during January 2000.

Andryushchenko Y.A., Oleynik D.S., Gorlov P.I.

The results of counts of wintering birds are presented in the article. These censuses were taken 17-22 January in the south of Kherson region and in the south-west of Zaporizhzhya region far from large water bodies. The total length of 11 automobile routes was 2025 km. The area was surveyed with a help of “shuttle approach” to cover it maximally. This investigation continued works begun in 1998, which were connected with census of Bustards, wintering in the south of Ukraine. This investigation has become possible owing to the financial support of the Bustards Society (Germany), and authors are very grateful to its workers H.Watzke and H.Litzbarski.

Weather conditions were characterized by deep-frozen ground and fair visibility (snowfalls were in the night) and favour carrying out normal censuses. The data about 53 species are obtained. Most of these species have a dispersed distribution over the regional area and are not connected with large water bodies in this period of year.