Internattonal Wader Studass 10: 394

Routesand timing of Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago migrationin the Ukraine V.V.Serebryakov & V.N. Grishchenko Serebryakov,V.V. & GrishchenkoV.N. 1998.Routes and timing of CommonSnipe Gallinago gallinagomigration in theUkraine. InternationalWader Studies 10: 394.

CommonSnipe Gallinago gallinago is a commonand widespread breeding wader species in mostof theUkraine, except for thesouthern regions. The main winter grounds of theEuropean population aresituated in thesouthern part of westernEurope and in NorthernAfrica (Gladkov 1951; Kistyakivsky1957; Baumanis 1985). MostEuropean ring recoveriesare from areassituated south of the +2•Cisotherm (Glutz von Blotzheim1977). Because of this,knowledge about the migratory routesand migration phenology of CommonSnipe is limited.

V.V.Serebryakov & V.N. Grishchenko, Department ofBiology, Kiev State University, Vladimirskaya Str., 64, Kiev 252601, Ukraine.

Cepe6ps•os,B.B., FpsnleH•o, B.H. t998. Ily?s s cpo•sMsrpa•lss o&,i•HoseHHoro 6eKaca Gallinagogallinago •la ¾lipa•le.International Wader Studies 10: 394.

New informationabout Common Snipe migration BlackKite Milvusmigrans and Mute SwanCygnus in the Ukrainewas obtainedduring 1975-1990by olor. meansof a questionnairesurvey. Spring migration of CommonSnipe occurs in Marchand April. In the To describethe phenology of autumnmigration of southernparts of theUkraine, however, these birds snipe,all availablepublished data for the 1960-1975 cansometimes appear in springas early as the period,in additionto our materialof 1975-1990,was secondhalf of February.The averagedates of its included.Phenological information for the autumn arrival occurbetween 20-30 March or 1-10April. migrationwas not soabundant as for the spring. Thereappears to be threemain migratory fronts. Most CommonSnipe in autumnoccur in October Thefirst birds appear on thewest of theCrimea, in and November.The birdscan, however, stay longer Zaporozhyeand Odessaregions. From these areas in southernparts of the Ukraineand have even been CommonSnipe move northwards through recordedduring winter. Zaporozhyeto Dnepropetrovskand thento Poltava, Kharkovand Sumyregions. The second front goes The datesof birds'arrival and departurehave not throughthe Odessaregion and Moldovanorth and beenconstant with time. An analysisof published north-eastwardsto Vinnitsaand Kiev regions.The literatureshows that whilst some bird specieshave third front occursin the northernUkraine and goes shownearlier arrival datesin the 20thcentury from westto eastthrough the Volynia,Rovno, (White StorkCiconia ciconia, Starling Sturnus Zhitomir,Kiev, Chernigov and Sumyregions. The vulgaris)the arrival datesof CommonSnipe have secondand third migrationfronts mix in theKiev become later. and Chernigovregions. There are two areasin particular,where Common Snipe appear comparativelylate in thecontext of theirspring arrival. The first occurs in the shadow of the Carpathianmountains within the territoryof Temopoland Khmelnitskregions. Another occurs in the centralUkraine (Kirovograd and Cherkassy regions).The springarrival pattern of Common Snipeis similarto thatof LapwingVanellus vanellus,

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