TY - JOUR

T1 - Nesting of Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) in the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland

AU - Kouzov, Sergei

AU - Zaynagutdinova, Elmira

AU - Sagitov, Rustam

AU - Rychkova, Anna

N1 - Funding Information: Ornithologists from St. Petersburg State University and the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Kondratyev, Vadim Vysotsky, Vladimir Fedorov, Valery Buzun, Sergey Rezvyi, Anna Gaginskaya, Natalia Iovchenko, and Georgy Noskov, took part in the expeditions and collected data in the Gulf of Finland. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the studies in 2010–14 by the company Nord Stream AG. We would like to thank the Baltic Fund for Nature and project manager Vera Ovcharenko for organizing these expeditions. Special thanks go to the teams of the yachts Centaurus-II, Mirabel, Manyana, St. Nicholas, and boat SMN.

PY - 2018/3

Y1 - 2018/3

N2 - Until the end of the 1980s, the Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) was an extremely rare migrating species in the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland, but in recent years it has become one of the mass migrants there. The first nest of a Barnacle Goose in the region was found on Dolgy Reef Island close to the Russian-Finnish border in 1995. Barnacle Geese then started expanding onto the islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. They occupied islands mostly in the northern part of the gulf, but nests were found in its central parts and close to the southwest coast as well. Barnacle Geese nested mostly on small, rocky, forest-free islands. By 2006, the size of the breeding population of this species had increased to 31 pairs. Forty nests were found in 2014, and an explosive population growth to 76 nests was observed in 2015. In 2010, Barnacle Geese started to breed on Ladoga Lake, and in 2015 the first nest was found on Onega Lake. Until 2010 Barnacle Geese had nested in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland almost exclusively on the islands lying at a distance of 2.4-10.1 km from the coast. The population growth that occurred in subsequent years was due primarily to the birds’ breeding on islands closest to the coast, no farther than 2 km away from the shore. After hatching, broods from inshore islets moved to feed on coastal meadows, but nonbreeding birds and failed breeders generally remained on offshore islands for the molting period. Further expansion of the Barnacle Goose in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland is expected. However, expansion could ultimately be restricted by the limited food resources for broods and molting birds.

AB - Until the end of the 1980s, the Barnacle Goose (Branta leucopsis) was an extremely rare migrating species in the Russian part of the Gulf of Finland, but in recent years it has become one of the mass migrants there. The first nest of a Barnacle Goose in the region was found on Dolgy Reef Island close to the Russian-Finnish border in 1995. Barnacle Geese then started expanding onto the islands in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. They occupied islands mostly in the northern part of the gulf, but nests were found in its central parts and close to the southwest coast as well. Barnacle Geese nested mostly on small, rocky, forest-free islands. By 2006, the size of the breeding population of this species had increased to 31 pairs. Forty nests were found in 2014, and an explosive population growth to 76 nests was observed in 2015. In 2010, Barnacle Geese started to breed on Ladoga Lake, and in 2015 the first nest was found on Onega Lake. Until 2010 Barnacle Geese had nested in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland almost exclusively on the islands lying at a distance of 2.4-10.1 km from the coast. The population growth that occurred in subsequent years was due primarily to the birds’ breeding on islands closest to the coast, no farther than 2 km away from the shore. After hatching, broods from inshore islets moved to feed on coastal meadows, but nonbreeding birds and failed breeders generally remained on offshore islands for the molting period. Further expansion of the Barnacle Goose in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland is expected. However, expansion could ultimately be restricted by the limited food resources for broods and molting birds.

KW - белощекая казарка

KW - гнездование

KW - Балтийское море

KW - птицы

KW - орнитология

KW - распространение

KW - Финский залив

KW - гусеобразные

KW - водоплавающие

KW - околоводные птицы

KW - ареал

KW - Baltic Sea

KW - Barnacle Goose

KW - Branta leucopsis

KW - wildfowl

KW - geese

KW - breeding

KW - population

KW - distribution

KW - Landscape

KW - Population growth

KW - Breeding

KW - Geese

KW - Distribution

KW - Population size

KW - Wildfowl

KW - Habitat

KW - Expansion

UR - http://arctic.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/arctic/index.php/arctic/issue/view/295

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042679374&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4703

DO - https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic4703

M3 - Article

VL - 71

SP - 76

EP - 88

JO - Arctic

JF - Arctic

SN - 0004-0843

IS - 1

ER -