Waterfowl monitoring in the wintering areas from the Romanian PrutRiver basin

摘要

Beginning from the winter of 1992, we did a continuous ornithological survey in different wintering areas along the Prut River basin. We studied the most important dam lakes, fishponds and some observatory points on the Prut River valley. We created a database about the trend and the actual situation of waterfowl populations in this part of Romania, identifying the best sites for birds during the cold season and monitoring the activities that disturb the birdlife, estimating the human pressure level in these areas. The wintering avifauna is formed by 100 bird species (43,85% from the total avifauna of Prut River basin - 228 species), 31 being aquatic birds - 21 species belonged to the order Anseriformes. The hiemal appearance (November-February/March in the last years of our study) of Prut River basin showed thousands of geese and ducks that represents the numerically most important bird group of the winter avifauna, followed by Coot (Fulica atra). We followed the global contribution of these species to the total wintering water-fowl population, during the whole period of study. Among them, Anser anser and Anas platyrhynchos represented super-dominant species within the hiemal population, Anser albifrons and Anas crecca were dominant species, while Aythia ferina reached the upper limit of the complementary species; we found significant values for Anas penelope, Aythia nyroca and Fulica atra.