Some unringed and some unread...

Counts along the coastline of all the islands reveal the areas most and least favoured by Oystercatchers; besides I do my best to check all the legs of all the birds seen, looking for “my own” individually marked birds or for those coming from elsewhere.



Luckily the birds can be seen close-up even in smaller or larger clubs here – while at the Waddensea they are really rather far away even for the telescope user. Not many “strangers” here. So far the birds with Dutch rings were only seen on Devichya Luda island (called “ostrov Golyi” on the navigation map), and last year birds with BTO metal rings were also recorded on Kibrinskaya Northern island and on Bolshoy Lomnishny island. All the rest are locally ringed.Some of the rings become really untraceable – like the bird with a white-coloured ring on the photo.



Actually all the rings made as red-with-white code by Ecotone Polish company already lost the upper red layer and are extremely hard (if at all possible) to read. I thus continue to regret that I was not using only the very endurable Canadian Protouch company colour rings in the former years... And I can only assume that the white-ring bird on the photo is the same “former red A10” (read then in the good light in 2007) seen there last year. A10 “formerly red” was ringed on 7 July 2003 on Devichya Luda island, and seen in a flock of non-breeders in 2007 on Gorely island in the same spot where an “unread former red” was observed in 2008.

Eight year bond - pair and the territory

From Ryashkov island by the boat of Kandalaksha nature reserve for more than a week starting from 28 June counts were made on all the islands of the Northern Archipelago, Kandalaksha bay of the White Sea. In between we also were checking those islands where the Oystercatchers were ringed individually in the former years. Nice findings continued.



On the photo there is a pair of blue-CR-ringed Oystercatchers No.31-blue and No.35-blue – female and male respectively, that were ringed on 25 June 2001 on Lodeiny island as one pair. That year they were caught on the nest, and had three chicks, though it was then unknown how many of them survived. In most of the following years except 2004 (and also this year), there was a fox on this island, predating all the Oystercatcher nests, including the nests of this pair. Still at high tide the birds were recorded at their territory (at least in 2002, 2005, 2006 and 2007). Same happens in 2008 also.



Meanwhile in 2002 the 35-blue bird was flying 2 km distance to Ryashkov western coast for feeding at low tide – when disturbed there returning to Lodeiny. It actually proves the value of the territories here at the White Sea islands – the birds continue to stay on them and to defend them even if breeding attempts are insuccessful for a number of years.

Surveys from Belomorsk towards Poyakonda along the coasts of the White Sea

Connection via GPRS continues... We are now back to the Ryashkov island of Kandalaksha state nature reserve after one week travel by sailing boat from Belomorsk via Kuzova islands and the Kem’ scherres along the White Sea North Karelian coast (and islands) – also via the Kem-Ludy cluser of Kandalaksha state nature reserve, via the Chupa settlement, via Kartesh biological station of the Saint-Petersburg Zoological Institute and the Biological station of Moscow State University close to Poyakonda settlement.
The trip turned great – thanks also to the team and to the weather – for Oystercatcher counts along the sample coastline, but also for general wider impressions on the wildlife values of the White Sea coasts. Therefore in the Russian blog I rather highlight not the Oystercatchers but the Eider Somateria mollissima males – migrating to the Onega bay for moulting; Velvet Scoter males flocks, Goldeneye males staging site in Kuzokotskaya bay, fantastic Arctic Tern colonies on smaller islands there, mix of Bearded and Ringed and a bit of Greenland Seals on the sea and exposed at the coasts.


For a change – a flock of Eider duck males instead of Oystercatchers and one picture with a map of the so far the best Oystercatcher area distant from the Kandalaksha reserve – Kuzokotskaya bay. With only one difference – Oystercatchers there are all un-ringed (and wechecked almost all that we met).

First visit to the most Oystercatcher’ed island in the entire White Sea

10th June early morning we are there - at Devichya Luda island.



The tide is high and still going up, so all the birds with ID-colour rings are around the areas that are already “former breeding”. Within the first hour we find the tracks of a large fox (likely solitary male) on the sand at higher parts of intertidal area. Means this year Oystercatchers again flew to here for nothing – as we find out during the day later absolutely all their nests are already predated. On entire 2 by 0.5 km island that usually holds ca. 70-80 Eider nests, at least 30 Oystercacher nests, about a dozen Turnstone nests, a colony of 30+ pairs of Common Gulls, 7 to 10 Herring Gulls nests and a few other less numerous birds – there are now onle two nests of Arctic Terns, who are good defenders, and a single nest of Common Gulls that survives so far only because it is placed high up on a large boulder in the intertidal zone.

Nevertheless we make absolute success in finding ID-coloured birds. The major ringing effort here was taken in 2000 and in 2002 by Lena the only Oystercatcher ringer, and since then only the fledglings of local pairs were ringed. Also with individually distinguishable colour rings. Short update so far: number 09, 08 and 12 (now x2) blue are there – ringed in 2000 and still coming each year in spite of the fact that the last three years at least were unsuccessful. On the picture – 08 and (supposedly 12) x2 blue-ringed are together scaring away unmarked strangers.



Untill now 08 was paired with unringed bird, so was the 12th – but without the nest I cannot guess if they are indeed together now, or it it is only for the guarding of the area.



Most valuable are the ID-marked Oystercatchers that were ringed as grown up chicks. Poor quality of Polish (Ecotone) colour rings make it much more difficult to read. While the former juveniles ringed with Canadian rings (Protouch if I remember well) have their orange-black rings in a very good condition, all the Polish rings – red with white letters when initially – lost the red top layer and can be read only in the good sunshine when the letter/digits pressed into plastic can still be seen well.
We are still most hapy to find two of those at least (we saw more but count only those that are 100% read) – A06 orange and A33 “former red”. They are both born here on the adjacent island of Kurichek in 2004, and now here in the “club” on Devichya Luda.
In fact all individually marked Oystercatchers we saw stay in the sites they were ringed in 2000 and 2002 – in spite of the fact that breeding effort is already unsuccessul.



Additional nice finding – bird “C” (assumed LC but flew away before fully read - this is the right bird on the photo above) – that is the one ringed in winter of 2003 on the Dutch Schiermonnikoog! Waders prove connections.

First update from the Oystercatcher islands

On the night of 6-7th June we finally took the train from Moscow to Kandalaksha, and on the 8th arrived to this town in the NW corner of the Kandalaksha Bay, the White Sea. The islands here are not only protected as part of the Kandalaksha State Nature Reserve, but are also included in one of the first Russian designated Ramsar sites “The Kandalaksha Bay”.
On the picture you can see the islands at half-tide: the islands closer up are not strictly protected but are included in so called “tourist zone”, kind of the buffer areas for the nature reserve itself. Farther away the group of islands is where we work and live – there is a group of wardens and research staff houses on the larger island with the hill (Ryashkov), and the Oystercatchers are mainly breeding on the islands around and more to the south (left of Ryashkov). This is actually the “best Oystercatcher area” for not only entire Kandalaksha Bay, but for the whole White Sea.

On the 9th June we are transported to the main island – met there by the first A41-yellow Oystercatcher that was individually ringed last year and now has its nest at almost the same spot as last year in front of the houses of research staff, just 3 meters distance.

Obviously the viccinity of people is a safer place – elsewhere on the island the nests are predated by Red Fox and by corvids (Raven and Hooded Crow). Even the nest on unringed pair on the roof of the research staff house (so called White House) did not survive this year – predated before we arrived, and likely by a Raven. Still the breeding of previous 5 years on the roof gave its results – later on 9th June we found one of the offsprings of the “roof pair” – ringed in July 2007 as a chick and re-sighted on the same island this year for the first time ever (A35 formerly red ring, now almost completely worn off and hard to read).


Stories of 10th till today will follow – hopefully GPRS connection just from the island still permits to upload what we want.

Ringing process

That is how I look like when ringing "my" beloved Oystercatchers. The bird that was caught is placed in a very handy plastic tube (designed by the Dutch I acknowledge!), which makes it easy to weigh it, to put both the steel life-long and the plastic ring(s), and to measure all what has to be measured, except that the wing length is the last measurement before the release.

What cannot be clear from this photo, is that I am always talking quietly to the bird, murmuring nicely that it is cute, that there is no harm, that the nest is also safe, and that the rings will make it even more beautiful. Whether the talking or anything else helps, likely the other things than talking, but some Oystercatchers go back into the same trap within7 to 8 minutes after release! Sure then they have just to be released again with a story that they only need to be in the trap once in 5-7 years or even more, and that all the other times we see each other at good distance.

OK for them - certainly better and more safe, - and I can read the rings in the telescope.

Things start to develop!

Today got the print-run of our questionnaire - with the joint (from the Kandalaksha reserve and from myself) appeal to the local people living along the White Sea coast - to help with counts and other simple data-gathering on Oystercatcher, Common Crane, Feral Pigeon and House Sparrow. The latter three were added upon request from the nature reserve staff. I even objected at first - seems it could distract attention from "my" beloved Oystercatcher as the main 2008 target - but then understood additional positive reasons to have these three extra species also in. If a person replies from a village telling about Cranes and Sparrows, but giving zero numbers for Oystercatchers - there is a fair chance that Oystercatchers are indeed not there.
Thus tonight and tomorrow practice the direct mailing ;-) for birds and nature. Besides mailed leaflets also a number of local newspapers promised help to publicize the questionnaire - and for them extra stories are needed as well. And on Oystercatchers I can talk and write for hours - so that people share the great care and all other feelings towards these birds!
Meanwhile the questionnaire in Russian in pdf version can also be downloaded - this is mainly for tourist groups who are also most welcome to help. Link valid till end of June, to be prolonged later.
As some of you might know - we do not have a practice of volunteer/students birdwatching, neither we have a network of bird-friendly people along the White Sea coasts. Therefore I am really really curious what we get from this first ever try to get bird data from local rural White Sea people.