Abstract
The Eider Somateria mollissima is a commonbreeding species in the Baltic. In 2008, Ottossonet al. (2012) estimated that the breeding populationof Eiders in the archipelagoes of the four Swedishcounties of Kalmar, Ostergotland, Sodermanlandand Stockholm was in the order of 103 000 pairs,whereas the breeding population around Gotlandwas about 6000 pairs. The distribution of breedingEiders in several regions is well known fromextensive surveys (cf. Gezelius 2012, Sveriges OrnitologiskaForening 2009). On the other hand, thedistribution of staging Eiders in early spring hasnot been studied on a regional level before.During 2009‒2011, extensive offshore surveyswere undertaken in the Baltic (Nilsson 2012, Skovet al. 2011). The main target species was the LongtailedDuck Clangula hyemalis. For various reasonssome areas (the east coast archipelagos fromGavle–Krakelund in 2009 and eastern Gotland in2010) were surveyed during the time for the springmigration of the Eider (which is still winter for theLong-tailed Ducks, leaving the Baltic in May). Inthis short contribution I present the results fromthese surveys for the Eider to give first snapshotsof the distribution of the species along the Balticcoast of Sweden during the migration period.
Highlights
During 2009‒2011, extensive offshore surveys were undertaken in the Baltic (Nilsson 2012, Skov et al 2011)
During three days in early spring 2009 (25 March 2 and 3 April) the main parts of the archipelagoes and offshore waters of the Swedish mainland coast from Gävle in the north to Kråkelund in Kalmar county in the south were covered by aerial surveys along fixed transects with a distance of 4 km between survey lines (Figure 1)
During the surveys in the mainland archipelagoes in spring 2009, a total of 12 567 Eiders were counted in the main belt of the surveyed transects (Table 1)
Summary
The Eider Somateria mollissima is a common breeding species in the Baltic. In 2008, Ottosson et al (2012) estimated that the breeding population of Eiders in the archipelagoes of the four Swedish counties of Kalmar, Östergötland, Södermanland and Stockholm was in the order of 103 000 pairs, whereas the breeding population around Gotland was about 6000 pairs. The distribution of breeding Eiders in several regions is well known from extensive surveys (cf Gezelius 2012, Sveriges Ornitologiska Förening 2009). For various reasons some areas (the east coast archipelagos from Gävle–Kråkelund in 2009 and eastern Gotland in 2010) were surveyed during the time for the spring migration of the Eider (which is still winter for the Long-tailed Ducks, leaving the Baltic in May). In this short contribution I present the results from these surveys for the Eider to give first snapshots of the distribution of the species along the Baltic coast of Sweden during the migration period
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