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Hello, we are Wieland and Juliana.
We are here at Muraviovka Park in Far-eastern Russia.
With this video blog we want to inform about our work within the Amur Bird Project.
Our team consists of students and young scientists from Germany,working together with local Russian students from Amur region.
Muraviovka Park was the first non-governmental protected area in the Russian Federation
and plays an important role for the protection of globally endangered species as well as for sustainable land use and environmental education in the region.
Now in April you can see the first White-naped Cranes and Oriental Storks at their nesting sites.
Muraviovka Park has to deal with several serious problems, e.g. poaching and wild fires.
In 2011, more than 90% of the territory was completely burned. Fires are not only a danger for the wildlife but also for the ParkĀ“s existence.
Our project started also in 2011, so were able to study the fire impact on migratory birds for the first time. Because we had several exciting findings within our first season, we decided to continue our work. And so, Wieland is running the project in the third year now.
In 2013 we will work all year round for the first time. Our team will include members from Germany, Russia, the Netherlands and Great Britain.
We survey both migrating and breeding birds.
To gather more knowledge about the migration of species which are small or not easy to observe, we are also trapping birds and ringing them with a special numbered ring from Moscow Ringing Center.
This method of bird ringing is successfully used for scientific purposes throughout the world.
Birds are trapped with mist nets, and we collect data about species, sex, age, biometry and fitness.
After ringing, all birds are released to the wild. Birds are not harmed during ringing process, which is shown by numerous re-traps of ringed birds even after many years.
With this method we get exact data which species are using which habitats at Muraviovka Park and learn about the timing of their migration.
In comparison between years we can also detect changes in population size. So far, nearly nothing was known about most of the birds here at Amur region.
Another important part of our project is environmental education. We invite students and school children to join our work and to learn about ecology and nature conservation.
Last week, a group of students helped to carry food for cranes in the still snow-covered wetlands, and together with school children we put up new nest boxes for birds.
These makes the project unique for the region. With this video blog we want to spread the word about the Amur Bird Project.
We are always searching for volunteers and sponsoring. All team members work voluntary and have to pay their costs on their own, the project is completely organized by private.
You can help us with "adopting" a species- for a single donation you will get a monthly newsletter containing news from "your" species.
For Russian students we offer a summer school in August. They will learn about ecology, conservation and scientific field methods and have the chance to improve their language skills
while working together with the international team of the Amur Bird Project.
You will find additional information and weekly updates on our project blog. If you have any questions, feel free to send us a mail.
Thank you and good bye!