Podoces, 2010, 5(1): 11–28 Results of Mid-winter Waterbird Counts in Iran in the Early 1970s DEREK A. SCOTT Castletownbere Post Office, Castletownbere, Co. Cork, IRELAND. Email: [email protected] Accepted 21 September 2010 Abstract: The mid-winter waterbird counts in Iran were initiated by the Department of the Environment in January 1967. The counts focused on pelicans, flamingos, swans, geese, ducks, cranes and coots, but some counts were also made of other species of waterbirds. By the early 1970s, the counts were sufficiently comprehensive to enable estimations to be made of the total numbers of many species of waterbirds present in Iran in the mid-winter period. The overall results of the counts and these population estimates are presented in a series of tables. It was estimated that in an ‘average’ year in the early 1970s, there were approximately 2,000–2,200 pelicans, 48,000–51,000 flamingos, 380–460 swans, 27,000– 32,000 geese, 2.0–2.4 million ducks, 2,300–2,800 cranes and 370,000–410,000 coots wintering in Iran. The number of birds reaching Iran in autumn and remaining throughout the winter was greatly affected by weather conditions both in Iran and in the north Caspian region. In mild winters, large numbers of the hardier species, notably the swans Cygnus spp., remained throughout the winter in the north Caspian, while in extremely severe winters, a large part of the Russian wintering populations moved south into northern Iran. In dry years, when many of the wetlands in Khuzestan, central Fars and Seistan remained dry throughout the winter, large numbers of waterbirds continued on south to winter in the Indian subcontinent or Mesopotamia. In the winter of 1969/70, when conditions were unusually mild in northwestern Iran, large numbers of birds overwintered in the wetlands of the Urumiyeh basin in Azarbaijan, but in most years these wetlands froze over in December, and most birds had left the area by the time of the mid-winter counts. Keywords: Iran, mid-winter, population estimation, waterbird count, waterfowl, wetland. INTRODUCTION wildfowl constitute a natural resource of considerable economic importance, it was The present note is intended as a brief summary evident that efforts should be made to manage of the results of the mid-winter waterbird counts the populations on a sustainable basis through carried out at wetlands throughout Iran during the rationalisation of hunting regulations and the five winters from 1970/71 to 1974/75. The creation of protected areas throughout the birds’ full results of these mid-winter counts were flyways. The first step was to estimate the total presented in a series of Department of the size of the wildfowl populations and to Environment Project Completion Reports determine if the populations were declining, as produced at the time, and the census data were was believed to be the case by many observers. submitted to the International Wildfowl Mid-winter counts of wildfowl had been going Research Bureau (IWRB – later to become the on in some European countries for a number of International Wetlands and Waterfowl Research years, but it was not until January 1967 that the Bureau and ultimately Wetlands International). IWRB began to co-ordinate these counts at an Annual mid-winter counts of waterbirds in international level and to encourage as many Iran were initiated by the Iran Game and Fish countries as possible in Europe and western Asia Department (later to become the Iran to participate. Iran was one of the first countries Department of the Environment) in the winter of to join in these counts (now known as the 1966/1967 as part of an international effort to International Waterbird Census (IWC)) and monitor populations of ‘wildfowl’ – species of submit its census data in the appropriate format ducks, geese, swans and coots – that were to IWRB for inclusion in an international subjected to heavy hunting pressure by sport database. hunters and market hunters throughout Europe In the early years of the IWC, the counts and western Asia. As the large populations of focused almost exclusively on species of 11 Results of mid-winter waterbird counts in Iran in the early 1970s – D.A. Scott Anatidae (ducks, geese and swans) and Eurasian 1970s were used extensively in the identification Coots Fulica atra, although participants were of sites for designation as Important Bird Areas also encouraged to count Greater Flamingos under the BirdLife International initiative (Evans Phoenicopterus (ruber) roseus and the two 1994), and also in the identification of wetlands species of pelican, Great White Pelican of international importance for inclusion in A Pelecanus onocrotalus and Dalmatian Pelican P. Directory of Wetlands in the Middle East (Scott crispus, as these were the subject of international 1995). conservation efforts and generally encountered in the same habitats as wintering wildfowl. In Iran, the Common Crane Grus grus was also DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTS included in the counts from the outset, as this was another species that was the subject of In mid-January 1967, the newly created Game international attention and was a conspicuous and Fish Department of Iran requested David element of the wintering waterbird populations Ferguson, an American Peace Corps Volunteer in several regions of Iran. Thus, throughout the attached to the organisation, to proceed to the late 1960s and 1970s, the primary objective of southwest Caspian region in Gilan Province and, the mid-winter counts in Iran was to count as in collaboration with two Provincial Department many as possible of the pelicans, flamingos, Officers, initiate a duck-ringing programme. At swans, geese, ducks, cranes and coots present in the same time, Ferguson made an attempt to Iran during the mid-winter period. census wildfowl in the Anzali Mordab area. The No special effort was made to count other results of this census were forwarded to the species of waterbirds, and only those wetlands Asiatic Wildfowl Survey in Pakistan and IWRB frequented by the target species were routinely in the U.K., and marked the first time that Iran visited by the teams of counters. Indeed, it was had participated in international wildfowl counts. not until the launch of the Asian Waterbird In the same winter, Lindon Cornwallis, a lecturer Census by IWRB in January 1987 that all at the University of Shiraz, was carrying out species of waterbirds were officially included in avifaunal surveys in the wetlands of central Fars, the counts. However, several of the experienced and provided counts of wildfowl at nine sites in ornithologists participating in the mid-winter this province. In the following winter (1967/68), counts in Iran in the late 1960s and early 1970s Ferguson counted wildfowl at 24 sites in Gilan kept records of all other species of waterbirds and also carried out a partial survey of Gorgan recorded during the wildfowl counts and in many Bay in Mazandaran, while Cornwallis again cases gave estimates of numbers. This was counted wildfowl at nine sites in central Fars. particularly the case during the period 1970/71 to The same sites were counted in the winter of 1975/76, when the author made a habit of 1968/69, along with the Dasht-e Moghan in counting all species of waterbirds present at each Azarbaijan and the lakes on the Turkman Steppe site, with the exception of some of the in Golestan. In the winter of 1969/70, a team led commoner gulls Larus spp. by Cornwallis carried out the first ever counts at Little information on the mid-winter wetlands in the Seistan basin and also visited the waterbird counts in Iran in the 1960s and 1970s Hamoun-e Jaz Murian, although this was has appeared in the published literature. completely dry at the time. This team also Ferguson (1972) summarised some of the early counted the wetlands in central Fars, while work in the south Caspian region in the late another team led by Hubert Kowalski and Alain 1960s, while Scott & Carp (1972) reported on Tamisier, two French ornithologists from the the first mid-winter wildfowl counts in Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat in Khuzestan Province in 1971. Summers et al. France, counted wetlands in Golestan, (1987) provided estimates for the wintering Mazandaran, Gilan, Azarbaijan, Kordestan, populations of waders in Iran, based very largely Kermanshah, Tehran and Esfahan. on the mid-winter counts in the 1970s, and Shortly after the arrival of the author at the Perennou et al. (1994) presented the annual Game and Fish Department in late 1970, a species totals for pelicans, flamingos, swans, permanent Ornithology Unit was established geese, ducks, cranes and coots for the period within the Department, and one of its primary 1967 to 1986. The mid-winter counts in the tasks was to organise the annual mid-winter 12 Podoces, 2010, 5(1): 11–28 wildfowl censuses and expand these to cover the that they observed. Because of the difficulties in entire country. Between the end of December identifying the pelicans, swans, geese and some 1970 and early March 1971, all major wetlands species of ducks to species level, especially in the south Caspian region, Azarbaijan, without the aid of binoculars, provincial Kordestan, Kermanshah, Esfahan, Khuzestan, personnel were requested to give only the total Fars and Seistan were visited by Ornithology figures for pelicans (both species), swans (all Unit personnel, and for the first time, counts species), geese (all species) and ducks (all were made at wetlands along the coast of the species except Ruddy Shelduck Tadorna Persian Gulf and Persian Baluchestan. ferruginea). The counts of Greater Flamingos, Thereafter, in each of the following four winters, Ruddy Shelducks, Common Cranes and efforts were made to cover all important sites in Eurasian Coots posed no problems as these were the five major wetland regions in Iran – the south well known birds and readily identifiable in the Caspian region (Gilan, Mazandaran and field.