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Pronkevlch Migrationof wadersm the Khabaroskregion

Migration of in the Khabarovskregion of the Far East V.V. Pronkevich

Pronkevich,V.V. 1998. Migration of wadersin the Khabarovskregion of the Far East. International Studies 10: 425-430.

In the areaof theLower 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 theEvoron lake 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 . 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 Xenus cinereus (30%) were the most numerous, while in someperiods Black-tailedGodwit and Calidrisalpina prevailed.

V.V. Pronkevich,Institute of Waterand Ecological Problems, Far EasternBranch of Russian Academy of Sciences,Kim-Yu-Chen Str., 65, ,680063, .

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 , 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

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 Nurnenius and the otherto the lowerAmur river valley. The rnadagascariensisand Redshank 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 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 Uclskaya;in autumn,a singlemigration route gallinago(21%) and 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 hypoleucos, Common Our data were mainly collectedin four areaswithin Snipeand Little Ringed Plover 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 (42.9%), censuses were also conducted in some areas of the CommonSnipe (17.9%) and Black-tailed 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 , 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 Numeniusphaeopus - - 1 0.1 Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa 148 13.9 121 14.3 tenuirostris 91 8.5 5 0.6 Temrninck's Stint Calidris temminckii 21 2.0 1 0.1

Totals 1065 846

427 International Wader Studies 10: 425-430

number of waders 5O0

4O0

3O0

200

100

0

April May June July August September month Figure 2. Seasonalvariation in totalwader numbers(for the first and secondhalves of eachmonth) on the shoreof Lake Evoronaccording to transectcounts in 1986. speciesin Table3 areunderestimates, because they Redshank, and Black-tailed Godwit were difficult to detectand thus under-counted.) prevailed.In summerand earlyautumn numbers of Wood Sandpiper(36.3%) and Black-tailedGodwit waders were rather low - from 12 to 17 birds, as the (44.8%)were the commonestspecies during these meadowswere floodedtwice during the summer. counts.The latter species was breeding on the WoodSandpiper, Common Snipe and Black-tailed nearbymossy bogs and we believethat a rather Godwit were recorded the most often at that time. largeproportion of the Black-tailedGodwit counted were from the localbreeding population. In the southernpart of TugurskiyBay (Sea of Okhotsk)wader countswere carried out on a At theAmgun' river valley,wader censuseswere transectin an intertidalarea with a tidal rangeof up conducted on more or less constant routes at the to 6 m (Table4). Springmigration at TugurskiyBa• flood-plainmeadow and at the dwarf-shrub-mossy asin the wholeregion, starts with the arrivalof bognear the PolinaOsipenko settlement. Total Lapwing;in 1990this specieswas first recordedon lengthof theseroutes was 12 km for everytwo 15 April. In spring,wader numberson the intertidal weeksof the study.Up to 161waders were counted areaare not large,probably because the intensityof thereduring the intense spring migration; Spotted migrationalong the coastwestwards from the Amur river is in generalrather low. Only two wader Table3. Wadernumbers at themost productive areas of species,Nordmann's Greenshank Tringa guttifer and theEvoron Lake shores in the firsthalf of August1988. TerekSandpiper Xenus cinereus, seemed to reach that areausing the marine migration route. All the seeces 01:i.ta!..I otherwaders, judging by theirdensities and species .•,,•.•...•?v.....•...... •;.:;.;.•,•;• •.• composition(Tables 1 & 2), used the mainland GreyPlover Pluvialissquatarola 6 0.1 migrationroute. The largestnumber of waders PacificGolden Plover Pluvialisfulva 264 6.0 recorded on a 10 km transect was 83 birds; Black- Little RingedPlover Charadriusdubius 4 0.09 tailedGodwit and GreenshankTringa nebularia MongolianPlover Charadriusmongolus 5 0.1 prevailed. Wadernumbers on the intertidalarea Lapwing Vandlusvanellus 18 0.4 increasenoticeably in July(in 1990from 3 July), Tringastagnatilis 1 0.02 whenTerek Sandpiper and Great Knot Calidris GreenshankTringa nebularia 31 0.7 tenuirostrisarrive from thenorth in largeflocks. The WoodSandpiper Tringa glareola 1,578 36.3 numbersof Greenshank,Spotted Redshank, Dunlin SpottedRedshank Tringa erythropus 165 3.8 Calidrisalpina and Red-neckedStint Calidris CommonSandpiper Actitis hypoleucos 23 0.5 ruficollisalso increase. The total abundanceof TerekSandpiper Xenus cinereus 20 0.5 wadersin autumnis 40-70times higher than in TurnstoneArenaria interpres 5 0.1 springand reaches6,000 individuals per 10 km Temminck's Stint Calidris temminckii 23 0.5 transect.Migration continues at thishigh intensity Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris 25 0.6 until mid-September.The majorityof birds Knot Calidris canutus 1 0.02 recordedat TugurskiyBay during the main period CommonSnipe Gallinagogallinago 178 4.1 of summer-autumnmigration were Great Knot and TerekSandpiper, although sometimes large numbers Numeniusmadagascariensis 16 0.4 of Black-tailedGodwit (July) and Dunlin Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa 1,948 44.8 (September)were alsorecorded. Bar-tailedGodwit Limosalapponica 40 0.9 Becauseof theabsence of anypublished data on Totals 4,351 wadernumbers at the Gulf of Udskaya,

428 Pronkevich:Migration of wadersin theKhabarosk region

Table4. Numbersof waderson a 10 km transectthrough the intertidal area in th• southernpart of TugurskiyBay in 1990.

. . Sl:•cies May June July August September Oct. Total I II I II I II I II I II I No.

Little RingedPlover Charadrius dubius - 4 - 1 .... 5 0.03 MongolianPlover Charadriusmongolus - - 2 - - 2 0.01 Lapwing Vandlusvanellus 3 - - - 3 0.02 Oystercatcher Haematopusostralegus - - 1 1 - - 1 - 3 0.02 WoodSandpiper Tringaglareola - - - 6 12 1 - 19 0.1 GreenshankTringa nebularia - 28 23 11 78 26 133 110 46 - - 455 2.3 RedshankTringa totanus - 17 1 - 3 3 17 - 41 0.2 SpottedRedshank Tringaerythropus - 19 290 40 81 12 250 121 70 883 4.4 Nordmann's Greenshank Tringaguttifer - 1 3 - - - 4 0.02 Grey-tailedTattler Heteroscelusbrevipes 5 5 - 7 3 9 - - 29 0.1 CommonSandpiper Actitishypoleucos 8 - - 1 6 4 - - 19 0.1 TerekSandpiper Xenus cinereus 1 14 •334 •350 898 280 65 - - 5,942 29.8 TurnstoneArenaria interpres - - 4 15 4 1 4 - 28 0.1 Dunlin Calidrisalpina - - 17 22 5 120 850 300 2 1,316 6.6 SanderlingCalidris alba - .... 1 - - I <0.01 Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris - - Z670 747 Z242 3,135 305 - 9,099 45.7 Knot Calidris canutus - - - - 5 1 - - 6 0.03 Red-neckedStint Calidrisruficollis - - - - 80 5 13 3 - 101 0.5 Far Eastern Curlew Numeniusmadagascariensis - 3 3 .... 6 0.03 Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa - 38 300 163 680 475 115 150 20 1,941 9.7 Bar-tailedGodwit Limosalapponica - - - - 5 2 - 7 O.O4

Grand Total 3 83 350 212 6,071 3,754 3,535 3,852 1,553 425 72 19,910

Konstantina,Ulbanskiy and TugurskiyBays, we themainland or alongthe marine coast. In spring, presenthere our fragmentarydata from theseareas. the birdsflying alongthe marinecoast of Tatarsky In thesouthern part of KonstantinaBay, 5,500 Straitcross the Seaof Okhotskdirectly and only in waders were counted on a 5 km transect on smallnumbers, moving westwards from the Amur 3 August1989; 70% of themwere river mouth. Themain bulk of migrantsflying over and 15%were Great Knot. In the southernpart of the mainlandpass through within a rathershort UlbanskiyBay censuses were made from 4 - 15 timeperiod of about10 days. In autumn,a August1989. The maximumnumber of waders proportionof thebirds that in springuse the marine recordedon a singleoccasion was about5,000 migrationroute, returnby the mainlandroute. This individuals.Besides the numerous Terek Sandpiper, was observedin GreyPlover Pluvialis squatarola, GreatKnot and Wood Sandpiper, unusually large MongolianPlover Charadrius mongolus and Broad- numbers of Redshank were recorded there: 221 billed SandpiperLimicolafalcinellus. Intense Redshank were counted on a 5 km transect in the summer-autumnmigration lasts for two and a half coastalmeadow close to the Syranriver mouth. On months.Wood Sandpiper, Common Snipe and 28 August 1990,15,000 to 17,000waders were sometimesalso Black-tailed Godwit and Spotted countedon a 20 km transectin the southernpart of Redshankare the most abundant species using the TugurskiyBay; Great Knot (65%)and Terek mainlandroute, both during spring and summer- Sandpiper(30%) were by far the mostabundant. autumnpassage. At TugurskiyBay on the Seaof About 13,000 waders were counted there on Okhotskthe mostabundant species in summer- 17 September1990, when 97%of the birdspresent autumnare GreatKnot and TerekSandpiper were Dunlin. although,during parts of thisperiod, Black-tailed Godwitand Dunlin arealso very abundant. Conclusions Fragmentarycensus data from the Gulf of Udskaya, Konstantina,Ulbanskiy and Tugurskiy Bays, as well In the Khabarovskregion, passage waders follow aspublished material from earlier studies, suggest two main migrationroutes, either travelling across that these areas west of the Amur river mouth are of

429 International Wader Studies 10' 425-430

specialimportance for birdsusing the coastalroute. Rakhilin,V.K. 1972. Migrationsof the Far Easternwaders. Thesecoastal bays serve as roostingand foraging In: Transcontinentalconnections ofmigratory birds and areasfor a very largenumber of birdsmigrating theirrole in thedistribution ofarboviruses, pp. 90-91. from the whole of north-eastAsia to their wintering Nauka, Novosibirsk. In Russian. grounds,including such rare speciesas Nordmann's Vtorov,P.P. 1963. Autumnbird migrationat the Seaof Greenshank,Spoon-billed Sandpiper Okhotskcoast. Ornithologia () 6: 321-324. Eurynorhynchuspygmeus and SwanGoose Anser In Russian. cygnoides. Yakhontov,V.D. 1977. Birdsof the ShantaryIslands: some ecologicalquestions. In: Problemsof theFar East References geography,17: 150-171.Khabarovsk. In Russian. Babenko,V.G. 1990. On the autumnmigrations of some waderspedes at the south-westerncoast of theSea of Okhotsk. Ornithologia(Moscow) 24: 139-140.In Russian. Dul'keit,G.D. 1973. To the wader fauna of the Shantary Islands.In: V.E.Flint (ed.),Fauna and ecology of waders,No. 2. pp. 34-35. MoscowState Univ., Moscow. In Russian.

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