MMBI ornithologist Professor Natalia Lebedeva continues monitoring at the Veselovskoye Reservoir (Western Manych). Here is her photo report with commentary:
Duck banding – don't worry, the procedure is painless and performed by professionals.
We banded 27 female mallards at their nests. One female banded in April, who had already successfully raised ducklings in May, nested again in June – confirmed through banding. Previously, band returns only came from females that re-nested after losing clutches. This is the first recorded case of a successfully bred female laying a second clutch. This raises scientific questions for future study: Who leads the first brood? Did another female displace the banded one? What really happened? As always, small discoveries lead to bigger questions.
Kestrel
Bearded reedling chick
Gadwall (listed in the Rostov Region Red Book)
Late-hatched grebe chick, grebe with a chick
Black-winged stilt (also Red-listed)
Pair of coots with young ones
Flock of ruddy shelducks
Mallard clutch
Caspian gull
Meanwhile, non-breeding greylag geese have left the waterbody, changing molting sites again due to unfavorable conditions this year near the Kalmykia-Volgograd Region border. A climate paradox: due to an anomalously early spring, young geese can already fly while adults are still molting. The population consequences remain unclear.
To be continued...
