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| Yellow-breasted Bunting fledgeling © Marc Bastardot |
After a short break in the Polar Ural,
Marc and Yulia, a Russian volunteer, met with ornithologist Alexey Levashkin in
the Nijni Novogorod Oblast. There we put the last three geolocators of the year
on males of the Yellow-breasted Bunting
Emberiza aureola, colour-ringed two other individuals, and did some
habitat mapping. And this in less than 3 days!
Despite
the fact that males were nearly not singing, we could easily catch them, thanks
to the perfect weather conditions (rainy day and foggy morning). The
territories were really easy to find as the chicks were already hatched and the
adults were immediately warning as soon as we approached the nesting area.
We could also find the first fledgling of the year!
In these abandoned fields close to the Vetluga river, the density
of the critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting was really high. It was
hard to make 200m without hearing some adults warning. Incredible to see such
big and healthy population (at least 20 to 30 pairs) only 400 km from Moscow.
The other species present in this place were similar to the
species that can be found in north-east Germany (River Warbler Locustella
fluviatilis, Common Whitethroat Sylvia communis, Garden Warbler Sylvia borin,
Common Redstart Phoenicurus phoenicurus, Oriole
Oriolus oriolus, Common Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus, Reed Bunting Emberiza
schoeniclus). In addition to these European species, some eastern ones
such as Booted Warbler Iduna caligata, Blyth's Reed Warbler Acrocephalus
dumetorum, Great Snipe Gallinago media and a Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica (which is a rare breeding bird in this area) were
observed.
We
would like to thank Alexey for the invitation to this great place and for his
help and all the logistics. We also like to thank Olga and Alexey who joined us
for a day for their help in the field! Спасибо большое!
// Marc
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| Team Vetluga: Marc, Yulia and Alexey © Marc Bastardot |
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| Tagging a Yellow-breasted Bunting with a geolocator © Yulia Sechina |
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| On the way to the buntings © Olga levashova |
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| A net full of tits © Marc Bastardot |
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| Lesser Spotted Woodpecker © Yulia Sechina |
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| Long-tailed Tit © Yulia Sechina |
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| Siberian Grass Snake Natrix natrix scutata © Alexey Levashkin |
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| Russian roads... © Yulia Sechina |
