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Divers finished their moult and started to move again

Monika Dorsch

Since mid-October there were no major news to report from diver movements, but since end of November things are getting exciting as birds started to move again. Red-throated Divers moult their primal feathers between October and December which makes them flightless for that period. Four of the Sibirian Red-throated Divers spent this time in the Gulf of Riga, one Sibirian bird at the Dutch North Sea coast and the West-Greenland diver spent this moulting period at the Scottish coast. In the meantime the bird moulting at the Dutch coast relocated to the British east coast and also the birds moulting in the Gulf of Riga have largely left this area. One of these birds lately sent its position from close to the capture area in the North Sea west of Sylt.

 

Red-throated Divers started to move

Monika Dorsch

Almost all Red-throated Divers equipped with satellite transmitters last winter – and still transmitting – have left their breeding / summering grounds and started to move. It will be interesting to see if and when these birds arrive in the same wintering areas in the German Bight, where they have been captured last winter, and how these birds will use or avoid areas with offshore wind farms there.

First deployment of transmitters successful

admin

The first field season started in 2015 and Red-throated Divers (Gavia stellata) were successfully captured on the North Sea north of Heligoland within their designated area. Their movement patterns during wintering as well as their migration routes to breeding areas and back can be tracked by satellite transmitters for a year now.

Since the end of April the first Divers started migration towards their breeding area. 3 Birds stay in Norway, 3 Birds on the Barents Sea, 2 on the White Sea, 1 on the coast of Island and 2 Birds are still on the North Sea. All the Birds heading north east towards Russia take longer breaks on the Baltic Sea. For now one Bird seems to have arrived in the breeding area in the West Siberian Plain east of the Ural.

Project Partners

Length of project: 01.11.2014 to  30.04.2018

Project partners: BioConsult SH GmbH & Co. KG. Husum, Justus Liebig University Gießen and DHI

The project DIVER is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie BMWi) represented by Projektträger Jülich (PTJ).
The project DIVER is a cooperation between BioConsult SH (Dr. Georg Nehls), the Justus Liebig University Giessen (Department Animal Ecology and Systematics, Research Group Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology, Prof. Dr. Petra Quillfeldt) and DHI-Denmark (Dr. Ramūnas Žydelis), and further involvement of the University of Copenhagen (Dr. Kasper Thorup).
The project DIVER also closely cooperates with the Research and Technology Centre, West Coast, Büsum, (FTZ Westküste Group ECOLAB Marine Animal Ecology, Prof. Dr. Stefan Garthe) and their project HELBIRD.

 

BioConsult SH

The main tasks of BioConsult SH are ecological research and consulting. BioConsult SH compiles expert reports for environmental impact studies, risk assessment, baseline research, appropriate assessment in accordance with the Habitats Directive and feasibility studies.

BioConsult SH has a broad experience in ecological monitoring in marine habitats, in the development and implementation of conservation concepts, control of ecological efficiency in protected areas, wildlife biology and management of databases, up to research projects such as radar surveys of bird migration. BioConsult SH conducts investigations associated with certain interventions and conservation projects as well as biological baseline studies.

BioConsult SH has a proven track record of performing telemetry studies with sea ducks and other seabird species and has profound experience in catching, handling and ringing birds. Together with DHI, BioConsult SH teamed up to track sea ducks during environmental impact studies for the Fehmarnbelt project.

 

JLU – Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology

The Research Group Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology of Justus Liebig University Gießen (JLU) has a broad experience in analyzing bird monitoring/surveys relevant to nutrition ecology, breeding biology and behavioural studies, especially with seabirds. The team has profound knowledge about the biology and ecology of birds related to marine ecosystems and was involved in delimitation of Important Bird Areas (Falkland Islands & Argentina).
There is relevant experience in assessing migration routes of pelagic living seabirds tracked by geolocators and GPS loggers- deployed on several diving bird species (penguins, cormorants) and coastal bird species (gulls), data evaluation of tracked positions as well as diving profiles and spatial modelling of several bird species in different ecosystems and publications in scientific papers.

 

DHI

DHI is a research and consulting company specializing in solving challenges in a water environment. While being globally recognized for physical water modelling, DHI also possesses extensive experience in environmental and ecosystem analyses.
With relevance to the DIVER project, DHI staff has multi-year experience in telemetry studies, analyzing tracking data as well as expertise in habitat modelling and other types of statistical analyses.

 

Contact:
Monika Dorsch: m -dot- dorsch -at- bioconsult-sh -dot- de
Birgit Kleinschmidt: b -dot- kleinschmidt -at- bioconsult-sh -dot- de

Project Aims

As a Joint Venture between BioConsult SH, Justus Liebig University of Gießen, (Department Animal Ecology and Systematics, Research Group Behavioural Ecology and Ecophysiology) and DHI, the project follows the overall objective to fill the knowledge gaps regarding ecology of divers, e.g. habitat use and movement patterns within critical areas aiming to support conservation plans for this species as well as to improve conditions for developing conservation tools and actions for this species. Considering offshore windfarm developments, spatial distribution and temporal characteristics of habitat use of divers will be analyzed to set a sound basis for the relation of habitat loss due to offshore windfarms and habitat requirements of divers. Following knowledge gaps were identified:

  • Little is known about habitat use and movements of divers within and between different wintering areas. It has been suggested that diver habitat choice varies in relation to tidal currents, other hydrological changes and direct weather impacts.
  • Migration patterns and general movement schedules throughout the annual cycle of divers are largely unknown. Diver numbers fluctuate substantially in different wintering areas and intensive movements have been recorded along the coasts of the Baltic and North Sea. This indicates high mobility during the non-breeding period. As a result of the gap of knowledge about migration and local patterns, it has not been possible to understand and to evaluate the cumulative impacts of different human activities on these birds.
  • Site fidelity to wintering and other staging areas is unknown. Whether birds are highly site faithful and return to the same places year after year or are flexible in using different geographic areas has important implications in evaluating potential impacts on populations.
  • Locations of origin are unknown. During the non-breeding period divers are widely dispersed along the coasts and offshore areas in the Baltic and North Seas and northern Atlantic. Breeding populations are distributed across high latitudes of Russia, Scandinavian Peninsula, UK, Iceland and Greenland. Recoveries of ringed birds are scarce and therefore it is unknown which breeding populations are being affected on wintering and staging grounds.