60 Barnacle Geese on Kolguev Island
©Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust
Wildfowl
(2013) 63: 56–71
unoccupied areas in the upper reaches of
the Peschanka River delta, (especially in low-
lying riparian habitats), or there had been
some isolated sub-colonies several hundred
metres from the main colony, by 2011–2012
all these vacant sites within the delta had
been completely occupied by nesting
Barnacle Geese, linking all previously
isolated sub-colonies to the main colony.
Nevertheless, the borders of this very large
colony, which now stretches almost 12 km
along the lower channel of the Peschanka
River, are still clearly delineated by low-lying
riparian habitats, and we rarely observed
Barnacle Geese nesting uphill on the slopes
of the river terrace or on the upper plateau
(the only exception being one falcon-
associated colony F_1; Fig. 1). The growth
of this main colony, which commenced
prior to the start of our study in 2006 (when
colony size was estimated most thoroughly),
continued in 2007–2008 (when only some
parts of the colony were monitored) and has
continued thereafter, has only taken place
within the low-lying riparian habitat
between the steep banks of the river
terraces which border the Peschanka River
delta. There was still space unoccupied by
geese between the east bank of Peschanka
River and the terrace slope in 2006, in a
band ranging from 100–1,000 m in width,
but these gaps had become occupied by
Figure 1
. Map of Kolguev Island with Barnacle Goose colonies (grey dots). Abbreviations correspond
to colony names shown in Table 2.
