Job vacancies at Muraviovka Park

Muraviovka Park is searching for a new director AND a teacher for environmental education. You can find all the details here (in Russian):

http://www.rbcu.ru/news/31098/

//Wieland

ABP 2015/2016

Siberian Chipmunk © Silas Wolf

Dear followers, I wish you all the best for the new year!

2015 was an exciting year for the Amur Bird Project, we had a nice summer school, several first records for Muraviovka Park, we started our standardized breeding bird monitoring and we started to use geolocators to study the migration of Siberian Rubythroats. The full report will be available here soon.

Our annual project meeting at the University of Potsdam was the largest we´ve ever had, up to 50 project participants and interested students, teachers and ornithologists came to our presentation session on the 18th of December. I want to thank you all for coming, especiall the speakers.

I´m looking forward to a succesfull year 2016 - our field season is going to start in April, so stay tuned.

Silas is giving a talk about refuelling of leaf warblers © Wieland Heim

Liebe LeserInnen, alles Gute für das neue Jahr!

2015 war das Amur Bird Project extrem erfolgreich, wir organisierten eine wunderbare Sommerschule, uns gelangen mehrere Erstnachweise für den Muraviovka Park, wir begannen unser standardisiertes Brutvogelmonitoring und wir konnten zum ersten Mal Geolokatoren einsetzen, um die Zugwege des Rubinkehlchens zu erforschen. Der Abschlussbericht wird zeitnah hier verfügbar sein.

Unser jährliches Treffen an der Universität Potsdam war so gut besucht wie nie zuvor, bis zu 50 Projektteilnehmer, Studierende, Lehrkräfte und Ornis kamen zu unseren Vorträgen am 18. Dezember. Vielen Dank fürs Kommen - vor allem auch den Vortragenden.

Ich freue mich auf ein spannendes Jahr 2016 - unsere Feldarbeit beginnt im April, man darf gespannt sein.

//Wieland

excursion to the nearby castles in Potsdam © Christoph Weinrich

past and future team members united! only the Russians are missing... © Arend Heim

First recovery from South Korea

Ringed Olive-backed Pipit at Ansan-si, South Korea, 16.10.2015 © Hyeong-Ji Kim

During the past five years we have ringed more than 27.000 birds of more than 150 species at Muraviovka Park, which produced more than 5000 local re-traps. However, long-distance re-traps of our ringed birds are still an exceptional rarity. One of our Long-tailed Rosefinchs was captured by Chinese ringers at Nenjiang (see here), and a Rustic Bunting was found near Haigang (see here). Now we received our first recovery from South Korea, a real Christmas present: a ringed Olive-backed Pipit Anthus hodgsoni was photographed at Ansan-si 16th of October 2015, and luckily most of the digits were readable, but unfortunately not all. This bird was ringed between 18th of September and 13th of October 2015 at Muraviovka Park, and was now re-sighted 1375 km to the south, only some days or weeks after ringing. Most likely, the bird was still on migration and has not yet reached its wintering grounds. This record shows the impressive possibilities of digital photography - even small rings of Passerine birds can be recognized, to fill more and more gaps in the knowledge regarding the East Asian flyway.

the Olive-backed Pipit was found 1375km to the south (see black arrow)

Big thanks to the observer Hyeong-Ji Kim and Jong-Gil Park, as well as Sergei M. Smirenski, Irina Kharitonova and the Bird Ringing Centre of Russia, and not forget to all the volunteers and ringers of this years´ Amur Bird Project autumn team.

//Wieland

Olive-backed Pipit at Muraviovka Park, September 2015 © Martin Suanjak

Save the Baer´s Pochard!

 

Our new stickers are printed! In Russian language, they say:

"Only here: Baer´s Pochard. Muraviovka Park is home for many globally endangered species. Illegal hunting is the major threat for wild ducks and geese."

Big thanks to Zhang Ming and the Baer´s Pochard Task Force for the photo, to Robert Heim for the design and to Juliana Nefjodowa for translation and of course to The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund for financial support.

We are going to spread them among locals during our work in the Amur region in 2016. Our survey this year failed to find a single Baer´s Pochard, the situation for this critically endangered species seems to be worse than expected!

//Wieland

ABP Annual Meeting 2015

Bird ringer needed!

Yellow-rumped Flycatcher - one of the highlights during spring at Muraviovka Park © Peter Meffert

Bird ringer (m/f) needed!

For the upcoming spring season at Muraviovka Park in Far East Russia, the Amur Bird Project is searching for a bird ringer. You should be able to stay at least for 8 weeks between 11^th of April and 5^th of June 2016 to run the daily mist-netting program at our station. I´m afraid you have to pay your travel and visa costs, but housing and groceries are included, as well as more than 3000 birds of nearly 100 species in your hands. You should be able to speak either English or German, and of course, Russian language skills are very welcome. If you have experience with mist-nets, handling and measuring of palearctic birds and if you hold a ringing permit, please send your application until 6th of November 2015 to amurbirding {ät} gmx.de

//Wieland

22y old Red-crowned Crane!

Red-crowned Crane "3C7" at Muraviovka Park, 21/09/2015 © Silas Wolf

The mystery is solved! We finally know the origin of the color-ringed Red-crowned Crane, which was spotted by the ABP team some weeks ago (see here). Together with its mate and two chicks the bird stood on a field at Muraviovka Park, close to Duchovskoie village on the 21st of September 2015. The white ring on its leg was clearly visible: "3C7".

Now we know that "3C7" was ringed as juvenile at Khinganski Nature Reserve, only 165 kilometers eastward. But the date is most surprising: "3C7" was marked 14th of July 1993 - which means the bird is now more than 22 years old! It is surely one of the oldest individuals living in the wild. Two decades ago "3C7" was ringed by Kiyoaki Ozaki from Japan and Vladimir Andronov from Russia. That time its weight was about 2.1kg, somewhat heavier than its sibling "3C8", which weighed only 1.7kg. Now it is an adult bird, and most likely bred at Muraviovka Park. It´s hard to believe that the bird has gone unnoticed for such a long time!

The eastern population of the endangered Red-crowned Crane is declining rapidly, but the population at Muraviovka Park is rather stable now on a low level with two to four breeding pairs each year.

Big thanks to everybody who helped to solve this mystery:
Sergei M. Smirenksi, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Mikhail Parilov, Jim Harris,  Rimma Andronova, Jiang Hongxing, Cao Lei, Sergey Surmach, Su Liying, the Moscow Bird Ringing Center as well as Daronja Trense, Christoph Weinrich, Martin Suanjak, Silas Wolf, Nadja Schäfer and Maria Sander.

Das Rätsel ist endlich gelöst! Endlich kennen wir die Herkunft des beringten Mandschurenkranichs, der vor einigen Wochen vom ABP-Team beobachet wurde (siehe hier). Der Vogel stand am 21. September 2015 zusammen mit seinem Partner und zwei Jungvögeln auf einem Feld im Muraviovka Park, nahe des Dorfes Duchovskoie. Der Ring war deutlich zu erkennen: "3C7".
Nun wissen wir, dass "3C7" im Khinganski Schutzgebiet beringt wurde, nur etwa 165 km östlich. Spannend ist aber vor allem das Beringungsdatum: "3C7" wurde am 14. Juli 1993 markiert - der Vogel ist nun also schon 22 Jahre alt! Damit ist er sicher einer der ältesten Mandschurenkraniche in freier Wildbahn. Vor mehr als zwei Jahrzehnten wurde er von Kiyoaki Ozaki aus Japan und Vladimir Andronov aus Russland beringt, gemeinsam mit seinem etwas leichteren Geschwister "3C8". Nun ist er ein Altvogel und hat offenbar im Muraviovka Park erfolgreich gebrütet. Es ist kaum zu glauben, dass der beringte Vogel in all den Jahren nie bemerkt wurde!
Die östliche Population des bedrohten Mandschurenkranichs nimmt rapide ab, wobei der Bestand im Muraviovka Park seit einigen Jahren stabil auf niedrigem Niveau ist, mit zwei bis vier Brutpaaren pro Jahr.

Vielen Dank an alle Beteiligten:
Sergei M. Smirenksi, Kiyoaki Ozaki, Mikhail Parilov, Jim Harris,  Rimma Andronova, Jiang Hongxing, Cao Lei, Sergey Surmach, Su Liying, die Beringungszentrale Moskau als auch Daronja Trense, Christoph Weinrich, Martin Suanjak, Silas Wolf, Nadja Schäfer und Maria Sander.
 

//Wieland

"3C7" foraging on a field near Duchovskoie © Silas Wolf

one of the chicks of  "3C7" © Silas Wolf