Fall migration of Siberian crane and geese at Middle Aldan in Yakutia, 2017

We conduct fall migration counts of endangered Siberian crane breeding in sub-arctic tundra in Yakutia from 2008, in point of the species flyway narrowing at Middle Aldan River. The birds fly in this river valley after overcoming the mountain ranges of the North-Eastern Yakutia, on the way to wintering sites in South-Western China. Simultaneously, the migration counts of three geese species were conducted. Works using the method of standard visual counts are carried out to determine the dynamics of population size and the impact of weather and climatic conditions of the year on the nature and timing of fall bird migration. It was found that due to abnormal weather, the conditions in the spring-summer and fall periods of North-Eastern Yakutia in 2017, the fall migration of Siberian cranes and geese took place in an unusually short time in the middle reaches of the Aldan river this year. Birds formed too numerous flocks recorded at unusually short intervals. Short terms of migration at the place and the large number of cranes and geese in flocks, recorded in very short intervals, demonstrate the general reaction of birds to the sharp deterioration of weather conditions, in particular, cooling and snow precipitation, against the background of relatively favorable and comfortable weather. The data of 2017 showed with a high probability that in the described area of fall migration counts, fly the entire Siberian crane Eastern population, spending the summer in the sub-arctic tundra of the lowland between Yana and Kolyma Rivers. During the previous 10 years of fall migration observation, such high results for Siberian crane Eastern population, close to 100%, were not obtained. The paper considers the relationship of this phenomenon with the extremely low success of reproduction in 2017, as a result of the fact that Siberian crane territorial pairs were allowed the presence of young immature cranes to their individual home ranges until the fall migration. Although, in the normal years, young birds, not tied to certain areas, can begin to migrate earlier than pairs with chicks. Thus, Siberian cranes unusually high number on the migration can also be caused by the simultaneous flight timing of adult and immature birds, held together in the nesting area before the formation of pre-migration concentrations, as a result of the lack of reproduction due to abnormal weather conditions.

Siberian crane, number, fall migration, terms of migration, breeding, snow precipitation, population, flyway, observation, counts

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