Eurasian Woodcock autumn ringing 2018
In autumn 2018, the Moscow research group "Woodcock" has organized expeditions for catching, ringing and observations of autumn migration in 6 regions of Russia: Moscow, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Tver, Vologda and Kostroma regions.
13 Russian ornithologists-ringers took part in these researches:
Sergei Fokin, Mikhail Bonch-Osmolovsky, Gleb Krylov - in Vologda region;
Petr Zverev, Evgeny Zverev – in Moscow region;
Vladimir Ershov, Andrey Blokhin, Mikhail Sokolov - in Kostroma region;
Alexander Kormilitcin - in Vladimir region;
Yuri Romanov, Marina Kozlova – in Tver' region;
Alexander Esergepov, Sergei Novikov-in Ivanovo region.
4 French woodcock specialists (Francois Gossmann, Damian Coreau- Office National de La Chasse et de La Faune Sauvage; Cyrill Manos, Denis Barret- Hunting Federation of France) and one Portuguese specialist David Gonçalves- Chair of the Woodcock and Snipe Specialist Group (WSSG) also participated. In addition, we assisted the gamekeepers and local assistants.
This expedition was conducted according scientific agreement between ONCFS and BirdRussia (“Woodcock” project) and also with equipment and financial help of Hunting accosiation of Department Isere (France).
The work took place on 16.09- 16.10 in the Moscow region, 17.09- 16.10 in the Ivanovo region, 21.09 -12.10 in Susaninsky district of Kostroma region, 22.09 - 17.10 in Manturovskiy and Kologrivsky districts of Kostroma region, 21.09- 24.10 in Maksatikhinskiy district of Tver region.
The international expedition in the Vologda region, Vologda and Kirillov regions worked from 22.09 to 9.10.
Main results. All teams of ringers made 149 night trips, 1083 woodcocks were observed, 313 woodcocks (29%) were captured, 299 were ringed and 14 birds were retraped in another nights. This is a record for all previous years of ringing. Among all captured this autumn woodcocks 80.3% were young birds, and among young 49,6 % - woodcocks from late broods. This suggests, on the one hand, the high success of breeding this year, and good weather and feeding condion for late broods. The final results of the breeding season of woodcock will be summed up after processing photos of woodcock wings, obtained by hunters and sent to us to determine the age.
Head of Moscow research group "Woodcock» Sergey FOKIN