Pronkevlch Migrationof wadersm the Khabaroskregion Migration of waders in the Khabarovskregion of the Far East V.V. Pronkevich Pronkevich,V.V. 1998. Migration of wadersin the Khabarovskregion of the Far East. International Wader Studies 10: 425-430. In the areaof the LowerAmur Rivertwo migrationcorridors for wadersare known - alongthe sea coastand acrossthe mainland. The overlandroute divides near the city of Komsomolskand runs alongthe Evoronand Chukchagirlakes and the Nimelenand Tugurrivers, as well asalong the Lowe.rAmur valley. On the inland route, a totalof 1,850-2,050 waders were counted along a 500m stripat the Evoronlake during one and a half months(four hour observationseach day) of spring migrationin theperiod 1986-88. In theperiod 1988-90 at thesea coast, spring migration had low intensity:50-80 waders per km2 of the intertidalzone of TugurBay. GreenshankTringa nebularia and Black-tailedGodwit Limosalimosa were the mostnumerous species. In contrastto spring, duringautumn migration mean density at TugurBay was 600-700 waders per km 2and a totalof 3,000-6,000waders were countedalong the 10 km coastalroute. GreatKnot Calidristenuirostris (46%)and Terek Sandpiper Xenus cinereus (30%) were the mostnumerous, while in someperiods Black-tailedGodwit and Dunlin Calidrisalpina prevailed. V.V. Pronkevich,Institute of Waterand Ecological Problems, Far EasternBranch of Russian Academy of Sciences,Kim-Yu-Chen Str., 65, Khabarovsk,680063, Russia. Hpouaess,l,B.B. t998. Msrpa•!sa ayasaos s Xa6aposcao•apae Aaa•,I•ero BocTo•a. Internan'onal Wader Studies 10: 425•430. Introduction of two large power stations- a tidal power stationat TugurskiyBay, on the Seaof Okhotskand a nuclear The seasonalmigration of birds, particularly powerstation at LakeEvoron - areaswith large waders,is poorly studiedin the whole of Far concentrationsof migratingbirds. Informationon EasternRussia, and in the Khabarovskregion in wader migrationhas been collected in the pastby particular. The vast coastlineand presenceof Vtorov (1963), who carried out censuseson the Sea longitudinally,or almostlongitudinally oriented of Okhotskcoast near the Ayan settlement;by lowlands,as well asits largewater courses make Dul'keit (1973) and Yakhontov (1977), who studied this areaa very importantpart of a flyway where the wader faunaof the ShantaryIslands; and by largemovements of birds,including waterbirds and Babenko(1990), who carried out severalwader shorebirds, occur. countsat EkaterinaBay and SchastyaBay in summer and autumn. Studiesof wadermigration and the placeswhere Two springmigration routes are known for waders they stopduring passageare becoming especially of Khabarovskregion: along the Amur river valley importantin the light of the proposedconstruction and alongthe marinecoast (Rakhilin 1972; our data). 425 International Wader Studies 10: 425-430 Sea of Okhotsk Sakhalin '3 Sla;nd 02 ,.. ß., '. ß] !•ikir•River ..• Figure1. Studyarea and studylocations: 1 - theAmur river flood-plainnear the Khabarovsk;2 - Lake .< Sea of Japan ßß Evoron;3 - ^mgun' river valley;4 - TugurskiyBay; , •.•. 5 - Gulf of Udskaya;6 - KonstantinaBay; 7- UlbanskiyBay. The former divides into two branches in the Migrationusually starts in the firstten-day period northernpart of the Middle Amur lowland,one to of April; the earliestmigrants are Lapwing Vanellus the Evoron-Chukchagir-Nimelen-TugurskiyBay, vanellus,then Eastern Curlew Nurnenius and the otherto the lowerAmur river valley. The rnadagascariensisand Redshank Tringa totanus. In marinemigration route passes along the coastof the April, the intensityof migrationis extremelylow: TatarskyStrait and dividesinto severalsmall on average21-43 waders were counted on the20 km branches at the Amur river mouth; one of these transect,most of which were breedingLapwings. branches is directed towards Sakhalin Island, the In May, migrationbecomes more intense, reaching a otherstowards the mainland. In spring,the peakduring the third week of May. A recordspring mainland and marine routes meet at the coastal area numberof waders(168 per 20 km route)was between the Amur river mouth and the Gulf of countedon 20 May 1989. CommonSnipe Gallinago Uclskaya;in autumn,a singlemigration route gallinago(21%) and SpottedRedshank Tringa runningfrom the north divides into two here. erythropus(18%) were the mostnumerous migrants. In June,wader densitiesare stable,and only Methods breedingspecies such as Lapwing, Redshank, CommonSandpiper Actitis hypoleucos, Common Our data were mainly collectedin four areaswithin Snipeand Little RingedPlover Charadrius dubius Khabarovskregion: on the Amur river flood-plain remain there. near the Khabarovsk(1989), at Lake Evoron (1986, 1988,1992),in the Amgun'river valley near the Autumnmigration lasts from July until mid- PolinaOsipenko settlement (1991), and at Tugurskiy October,although the earliestmovements were Bayon the Seaof Okhotsk(1989,1990). Surveys of recordedat the end of June. The beginningof these differinglevels of detailwere made. Waderswere movementsusually coincides with the arrival of mostlycounted on footon transectswith the WoodSandpiper Tringa glareola. Intense migration exceptionof LakeEvoron, where observations were occursin July,August and the firsthalf of conductedfrom a stationarypoint. Singlewader Septemberwhen Wood Sandpiper (42.9%), censuses were also conducted in some areas of the CommonSnipe (17.9%) and Black-tailedGodwit marinecoast: at the Gulf of Udskaya,and at Limosalirnosa (11.4%) are recordedmore often than KonstantinaBay and UlbanskiyBays (Figure 1). At the otherwaders. Sometimes,during intense the Amur river flood-plainwader countswere migration,up to 190waders a day werecounted on carriedout onceevery five daysin April, May, July the 20 km transectin the Amur river flood-plain. and Septemberon a 20 km transectalong the bank Observationsof springmigration at Lake Evoron of the Amur river and in the flood-plainmeadows, were conductedfrom a stationarypoint, located on which have ox-bow lakes. the southernshore of the lake (Table 2). In 1986 and 1988birds were counted during two hoursin the Results morningand two hoursin theevening for a month The averagenumber of wadersper counton the and a half. Censuses were also carried out on a four Amur river flood-plainfor eachtwo-week period km transectonce every five daysfrom springuntil are shown in Table 1. autumn. The results of the counts from the stationarypoint indicated that waders form 426 Pronkevichß Migration of wadersin the Khabaroskregion Table1. Averagenumbers of waderson the 20 km transectin theAmur river flood-plainnear the Khabarovskduring half- monthperiods in the 1989spring and autumn migrations. •--•-• •--•.••---.• ........ t• '•" ' ,, •. &.' '. '•.' ;.•:.:d .• .; ;..;. :.:,o;. :, .... - ........ • ...... i!• H: ii II I .H I H PacificGolden Plover Pluvialisfulva - - 3 - - 1 Lapwing Vanellusvanellus 37 17 24 26 15 50 - - GreenSandpiper Tringa ochropus - 1 - - - 1 WoodSandpiper Tringa glareola - 1 3 84 61 24 1 GreenshankTringa nebularia - - - 1 2 5 1 2 RedshankTringa totanus 3 3 1 3 4 11 1 1 SpottedRedshank Tringa erythropus 1 - 18 21 - - 8 MarshSandpiper Tringa stagnatilis - - 1 1 - - - CommonSandpiper Actitis hypoleucos - 1 1 1 - Calidrisspp. - - 1 6 1 5 - - CommonSnipe Gallinagogallinago - 23 26 3 21 33 14 Swinhoe'sSnipe Gallinagomegala 1 2 - - - Far EasternCurlew Numeniusmadagascariensis 2 - - 1 - Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa - - 9 36 - Total 43 21 73 91 119 190 59 28 approximately13-17% of all birdsmigrating across The graphof seasonalchanges in numbersof the Evoron Lake. wadersbased on transectcounts in 1986(Figure 2) showsa sharppeak in springand at leastone, WoodSandpiper, Spotted Redshank and Black- possiblytwo smallerones in autumn,observed tailed Godwit were mostabundant on spring duringthe firsthalf of August. The periodwhen migration.The proportionof CommonSnipe numbers are stable is rather short and is observed observedwas under-estimatedas the speciesis from the end of Juneto the beginningof July. In difficultto detecton migration.The main bulk of generalCommon Snipe, Black-tailed Godwit and migrantspassed the stationarypoint in the second WoodSandpiper were recordedmost often on half of May: peakmigration was observed in transectsduring summer-autumn migration on the differentyears from 17-18May to 25-27May, when shores of Lake Evoron. In order to estimate the 85-87%of all wadersrecorded during a spring approximatenumber of wadersthat simultaneously passedthrough. In spiteof pronounceddifferences stopat Lake Evoron,we undertookcensuses at the in the weather conditions of the 1986 and 1988 beginningof Augustin the mostproductive habitats springs,the datesof migrationin differentwader whichwere at the mouthsof the riversrunning into specieswere very similar. Lake Evoron (Table3). (The data for small wader Table2. Cumulativenumber of waderson springmigration recorded during daily fourhour observationperiods from a stationarypoint in the southernpart of Lake Evoronin 1986and 1988. LittleRinged Plover Charadriusdubius - 5 0.6 Lapwing Vandlusvanellus 50 4.7 6 0.7 GreenSandpiper Tringaochropus 9 0.8 7 0.8 WoodSandpiper Tringa glareola 245 23.0 288 34.0 GreenshankTringa nebularia 9 0.8 11 1.3 RedshankTringa totanus 1 0.09 - SpottedRedshank Tringa erythropus 311 29.2 166 19.6 Grey-tailedTattler Heteroscelusbrevipes - 2 0.2 CommonSandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 73 6.9 115 13.6 CommonSnipe Gallinagogallinago 73 6.9 37 4.3 Swinhoe'sSnipe Gallinagomegala 2 0.2 4 0.5 Far EasternCurlew Numeniusmadagascariensis 32 3.0 78 9.2 Whimbrel