Close
Close
Close

Status of the Baltic Dunlin Calidris alpina in Lithuania

Info

Pages
184 – 187

Published
1 December 11

Authors
Ole Thorup, Zydrunas Preiksa, Hannes Pehlak, Martin Altemüller, Hauke Drews

Correspondence
Ole Thorup
olethorup.fugleliv@gmail.com
Amphi Consult, Vester Vedsted Byvej 32, Vester Vedsted, DK-6760 Ribe, Denmark.

Files

Public Files

Breeding Dunlins in Lithuania have not attracted much attention since fieldwork for the Lithuania Bird Atlas in the 1990s. In order to assess the present status of the threatened Baltic Dunlin population in Lithuania, we surveyed most of the former key breeding sites for the species in May 2011 and recorded current land use. We found no breeding Dunlins in Lithuania and at the majority of the former breeding sites current land use no longer affords suitable habitat. Dunlins have suffered from a reduction in the intensity of grazing and a lowering of the water table in their former coastal meadow habitats. A broad suite of other meadow breeding waders have also disappeared from these areas; moreover the globally red-listed Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola has declined markedly in the same habitat