Nesting of Tundra Wader Species in the Orenburg Steppe Area in the 19th Century

Abstract

Several tundra wader species occasionally nesting in the former Orenburg Province in the second half of the 19th century were reported by the prominent researchers of the avifauna of that region E.A. Eversmann, N.A. Zarudnyi, and P.P. Sushkin among others. In most cases, the scientists based their assumptions on circumstantial evidence alone, for instance, summer records of adult birds and migrating broods. Taking into account the specific biology of the species in question, such data could not be regarded as sufficient proof for the species’ nesting. In the middle of the 20th century, these data were revised and quite justly criticized: this led to varying conclusions regarding the nesting of tundra wader species in the region as having been wrong. The matter seemed to be settled. Yet it should be noted that, along with circumstantial data on the nesting of northern waders, the early researchers had also reported very solid facts like finding nests with clutches of eggs and nonflying chicks (including the Red-necked Phalarope and the Little Stint). For certain reasons, those facts were not considered during the revision that followed. Firstly, it was difficult to find an explanation for such outstanding evidence in the middle of the 20th century. Secondly, no new nests of those species were found that could confirm the 19th century researchers as having been right. Furthermore, the idea that long-term cycles of climate changes influence the dynamics of bird nesting areas became widely accepted only by the end of the 20th century. Nowadays when this idea has been thoroughly developed, the possibility of the former nesting of some tundra wader species in arid regions does not seem so incredible. It seems likely that Zarudnyi and Sushkin were the last scientists to witness the nesting of tundra wader populations in the Orenburg region as over time due to climate warming the waders might have left the region for good.