58 Barnacle Geese on Kolguev Island
©Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Wildfowl
(2013) 63: 56–71
north and lies 80 km offshore in the
southeast Barents Sea, separated from the
mainland by the 80 km Pomor Strait (Atlas
of Arkhangelsk Region 1976; Fig. 1). The
eastern, southern and southeast coasts of
the island are surrounded by shallows,
bordered with sandy and gravel spits.
Altitudes in the central part of the island are
generally between 20–60 m, but in the
central hilly region the highest hills range up
to 140–173 m a.s.l. and the southern part is
a flat boggy plateau, 4–6 m a.s.l.. The
coastline is even and rather straight with
40–70 m bluffs in the east and north (Atlas
of Arkhangelsk Region 1976).
Winter is relatively mild for this latitude
and the summer is cool. Average ambient
temperature exceeds zero degrees from late
May – early June. The coldest month is
January (average temperature = –12.2°C),
and the warmest is July (+7.4°C). The
permafrost layer is at 1 m depth.
Precipitation is mostly in winter, typically
averaging 155 mm
per annum
. Snow melt
commences around mid-May on southward-
facing hills, about 1–2 weeks earlier on flat
plains and river banks than in the hilly
uplands of the central part of the island,
and the land is generally clear of snow by
early June on the plains, or by mid-June in
the central uplands. In deep gullies, deep late
snow patches persist until mid-July, but have
mostly gone by early August. Winds are
mostly from the northeast in spring and
summer, mostly eastern in autumn, and
mostly from the southwest and northwest in
winter. The island usually has snow cover
and frozen lakes from mid-September
onwards. The sky is almost always cloudy
(Atlas of Arkhangelsk Region 1976).
The western and central parts of the
island comprise typical tundra vegetation,
while southern tundra vegetation types
dominate in the east and south (Gribova
1980). Due to the flat relief
c
. 38% of the
island is bog vegetation, which is especially
extensive in the south of the island
(Bogdanovskaya-Gienef 1938). Of the
tundra vegetation types, hummock lichen-
moss tundra is most prevalent. Creek and
river banks are overgrown with willow
bushes (mostly
Salix glauca
and
S. lanata)
1–2 m tall. The longest river on the island
(Peschanka River), which crosses the island
from west to east, is about 150 km in length
(Koreisha 2000), and forms a large delta in
its lower reaches with boggy habitats
between the two main river channels.
Neither rodents nor small ground
predators such as mustelids occur on the
island, but Arctic Fox and Red Fox are
common. Although Polar Bears
Ursus
maritimus
visit the northeast coast for short
periods each spring and sometimes stay
along the coastline, they have never been
recorded inland during summer. Some
8,000–10,000 domestic Reindeer
Rangifer
tarandus
range freely over the whole of the
island.
Methods
Fieldwork was undertaken from 29 May–13
August 2006, 24 May–16 August 2007, 29
May–10 September 2008, 29 May–16
August 2011 and 1 June–2 August 2012. In
2006, constant observations were made in
the eastern part of the island in the
Peschanka River delta, while central parts
were visited for a short period once every
2–4 weeks. In 2007–2008 and 2011–2012,
