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1 ; WILDFOWL 23 Published by the Wildfowl Trust, Slimbridge 1972 Editors: G. V. T. Matthews and M. A. Ogilvie The Wildfowl Trust, Slimbridge, Gloucester, England Cover painting by Peter Scott Line drawings by Peter Scott, Robert Gillmor, Barry A. Leach and others Price £1.75 ($5.50). Postage extra Issued free to Life Fellows, Fellows and Full Members of the Wildfowl Trust Printed for the w il d f o w l t r u s t b y THE BERKSHIRE p r in tin g CO. LTD., Reading, Berkshire, England, 1972 Index to Plates I a. Pair of Kelp Geese facing page 16 b. Female Falkland Flightless Steamer Duck and young II a. Male Kelp Goose 17 b. Female Kelp Goose I l l a. Feral Greylag Goose on nest 32 b. Feral Greylag Goose nest site IV a. Feral Greylags flying 33 b. Feral Greylag family party V a . Chilean Teal 56 b. Chilean Pintail V I a. Cereopsis Goose between pages 56-57 b. Female Cereopsis Goose and Young V II a. A pair of Andean Geese between pages 56-57 b. Pair of Greater Magellan Geese V III a. Pair of White-faced Whistling Ducks facing page 57 b. Pair of Orinoco Geese IX a. Greenland White-fronted Geese 80 b. Emperor Geese X a. Male European Pochard 81 b. Philippine Duck X I a and b. Female Musk Duck 96 X II a. Female Gadwall and Young 97 b. Black-necked Swan and young X III a and b. Hawaiian Goose and young 112 X IV a and b. Observation facilities at Eastpark Refuge 113 X V a. Immature White-winged Wood Duck 128 b. Downy young of White-winged Wood Duck X V I a. Bewick’s Swan 129 Contents page Waterfowl wintering, resting and breeding areas of the south-west Caspian lowlands. David A. Ferguson 5 Ecological studies of Falkland Islands’ waterfowl. Milton W. Weller 25 The waterfowl of the Fraser Delta, British Columbia. Barry A. Leach 45 The Grey Teal at saline drought-refuges in north Queensland. H. J. Lavery 56 Icelandic Greylag Geese wintering in Britain in 1960-1971. H. Boyd and M. A. Ogilvie 64 Breeding biology of feral Greylag Geese in south-west Scotland. John G. Young 83 Accidental poisoning of wild geese in Perthshire, November 1971. S. Bailey, P. J. Bunyan, G. A. Hamilton, D. M. Jennings and P. I. Stanley 88 Moult migration of Emperor Geese. N. G. Blurton Jones 92 Mortality and exploitation of Paradise Shelduck. Murray Williams 94 British recoveries of Mallard ringed at Borough Fen Decoy, Northampton shire. M. A. Ogilvie and W. A. Cook 103 Mute Swan weights in relation to breeding performance. C. M. Reynolds 111 One hundred and fifty years of Mute Swans on the Thames. Stanley Cramp 119 Research, Conservation and Education: the Wildfowl Trust’s contributions in 1971. 125 5 Waterfowl wintering, resting and breeding areas of the south-west Caspian lowlands DAVID A. FERGUSON Introduction The South Caspian region of Iran has ployed as an advisor to the Iran Game received considerable ornithological atten and Fish Department and later as the tion as compared with other sections of Chief of the Migratory Waterfowl Unit, the country. Misonne (1953), Schüz Division of Research and Development in (1959), Passburg (1959), Nielsen and the Department, collected data on an Speyer (1967), Nielsen (1969), and Feeny irregular time basis for the area from et al. (1968), to name only a few of the January 1967 to April 1970. Most obser more recent investigators, have all added vations were carried out during the to the knowledge of this area. Most of winter months, but in December 1968 a these workers, however, were only able month-by-month survey was initiated at to devote relatively short periods of time the Pahlavi lagoon and marsh situated in to the region and therefore concentrated the centre of the region. Visits were made on migrational aspects. Others described over two or three day periods at approxi local movements, occurrence and abun mately the same time each month until dance. Emphasis was almost always on April 1970. the passerines. A total of 332 observations was made on This paper describes the results of an over 100 areas throughout the south-west intensive study of the waterfowl and wet Caspian lowlands. Some areas were only lands in the south-west Caspian lowlands. visited once or twice to locate, study and Investigation of the area was instigated evaluate them. Others, which were usually through the interest of the Iran Game and larger and determined to be more im Fish Department. The entire South Cas portant, were visited several times to see pian region was recognised as an im how the situation changed from month portant wintering ground for Palaearctic to month. Due to the number of areas waterfowl which provided an abundant and observations the information in this supply of food for a well-established wild- paper is necessarily summarised. fowling industry (Savage 1963). However, The area of study consists of the south little information was available on the west Caspian lowlands extending from the kinds and abundance of species, the border in the north with the U.S.S.R. number, size, and type of habitats, effects at Astara, south and east to an arbitrary of hunting, as well as many other aspects point near the present town of Rudsar that would affect the status of the popu where the plain narrows between the lation as a whole. The Department was Alborz Mountains and the Caspian Sea primarily interested in the factors affecting (Figure 1). The arbitrary demarcation was management of the waterfowl, but were due in the north to political boundaries also concerned with the overall ecology and in the south-east to physical limits of the region. of extensive wetland habitat other than The author of this paper, while em the shore of the Caspian itself. 6 Wildfowl Figure 1. The south-west Caspian lowlands. Waterfowl of the south-west Caspian 7 AREA AND STRUCTURE 187 cm. (there was an exception in 1942 Physical geography, geology and when a minor rise was experienced, but geomorphology this was followed by a greater fall in 1944). Zenkevitch further reports that the 1 Caspian Sea conformity between fluctuations of the The Alborz Mountains (the western por Caspian Sea level and those of the inflow tion is known as the Talesh section) of the Volga River which supplies about extend eastward from the border with the 75.6% of the total water supply of all U.S.S.R. in the north-west, in a shallow the rivers, is so close that direct influence arc (maximum width of 130 km. and an has been established. He states that the average of under 95 km.) along the great drop in the Caspian level from 1930 southern end of the Caspian Sea for over to 1943 was caused by the considerable 1,000 km. Included in this chain, and decrease of river inflow, particularly the lying approximately in the centre, is the Volga, but that this has now been volcanic cone of Mount Demavand stabilised. (5,774 metres) which is higher than any Almost all the reports since then in peak to the west of it in Asia or Europe. dicate the contrary; that the Caspian con Because of its restricted width, the system tinues to fall. However, the same reports is extremely steep, especially the give values for the level of the sea which northern slopes. These rise directly from lead to a great deal of confusion. For the below sea level coastal plain of the example, Vladykov (1964) states that the Caspian. level of the Caspian in 1955 was about Water runoff has furrowed these slopes 28 metres below the level of the Atlantic with deeply-cut valleys and deposited the Ocean (in effect, a further drop from debris in the forelands in great alluvial 1946). Savage (1958) reports this level for fans and wide deltas. However, drainage 1956-57. Fisher (1968a), on the other to the South Caspian is by no means hand, writes : ‘The Caspian Sea at restricted to the northern slopes of the present is some 85 feet (25.91 m.) below Talesh and Alborz Mountains. mean sea level, and is slowly shrinking The outwash and deposition of sedi in size, with an average annual fall in ments from erosion of the northern up level of about 8 inches (20.32 cm.)’. If lands, accompanied by a lowering of the all the readings were correct it would level of the Caspian, has succeeded in mean a drop from 1946 to 1957, and then creating a narrow coastal plain some 650 a two metre rise from 1957 to 1968! It kilometres in overall length but varying is doubtful that such is the case. in width from 30 kilometres to less than It is known, however, that the Caspian two. shows great seasonal fluctuation with According to Zenkevitch (1963) the highest levels occurring during the first lowering of the Caspian is characteristic half of summer, after floods, the lowest of the whole Quaternary Period. Savage levels at the beginning of winter. There (1958) indicates that since the area is in are no real tides, but sporadic seiche a great earthquake region, following any movements are produced as a result of movement of the earth’s crust there must sustained wind action. Definite currents be some settlement in the great depth of exist; mainly from west to east, as regards unconsolidated gravels which are known the southern end. The sea has no outlet to underlie the Caspian.