ИСТИНА

The Taimyr Peninsula is a unique region of the Russian Arctic to study migration links of birds, waders in particular. The birds breeding on Taimyr undertake long-distance migrations to the wintering grounds located in Europe, Asia, Africa, Americas, and Australia and use all five global Palearctic flyways (Tomkovich et al., 2000; Soloviev et al., 2011). Detailed information about migration links of Taimyr birds is of great importance not only for filling the gaps in our knowledge of avian biology, but also for predicting the spread of diseases originating from local foci on various continents and conservation of the rare species and their habitats in non-breeding areas. Large-scale studies of waders were launched on Taimyr in 1989; more than 10,000 individuals of 26 species have been ringed there, but only about 80 ring recoveries are available. The team led by MS carries out the long-term wader monitoring for the last 20 years and is presently the sole team of professional ornithologists working in the region. We plan to use transmitters for tagging the Grey Plover (Pluvialis squatarola) and Ruff (Philomachus pugnax). More than 450 grey plovers were banded on the Taimyr Peninsula in 1989–2013. A recovery and two sightings of ringed grey plovers breeding on northwestern Taimyr indicate that they winter in Western Europe. A bird ringed on southeastern Taimyr was recaptured in the Netherlands, but it is insufficient to reject the assumption that these shorebirds may use Western Siberia–African and Central Asia–Indian flyways together with their conspecifics nesting east of the study area (Tomkovich et al., 2000) and, hence, the Taimyr breeding grounds house grey plovers of different wintering populations. Satellite tracking is a proper instrument for checking this assumption. The Ruff is even more mysterious bird. It is known that ruffs from European, African and Indian wintering grounds extensively mix within the breeding range. It seems to be true for the Taimyr Peninsula, with ring recoveries from ruffs banded in Kenya, India, and Sweden. In 1989–2013, more than 350 ruffs were ringed on Taimyr breeding grounds, but no recoveries were reported. Male and female ruffs migrate and winter separately, and it would be particularly interesting to check the sex differences in migration pattern. Since these shorebirds show no site fidelity in nesting areas and, hence, cannot be recaptured in subsequent breeding seasons, geolocation method is of no use in this case. One more item that could be clarified by satellite tracking is the mating route of male ruffs. Their leks move on the local scale, and it could be assumed that males move northward with the onset of spring and mate in numerous locations along their way. The stability of lek structure and composition over the entire mating period is also under question. Thus, the use of ICARUS transmitters would throw light not only on the long-distance migration patterns, but also on their local movements, completely unknown so far.