Coastal Waterbird Community Structures in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, during spring and fall in 1999 - 2004

This data set contains coastal waterbird survey data 1999 - 2004 in the Sea of
Okhotsk, Russia. It covers waterbird information (relative abundance),
collected with beach scans, percent scans and transect surveys along to the
coastal areas of the study area. Areas that were surveyed are: Northern
Sakhalin Island, Eastern Sakhalin Island, Southern Sakhalkin Island, West
Kamchatka and Magadan region. These are either accessible beaches (sand and
gravel) or estuaries. Some areas have received a repeated survey effort over
years and seasons (spring and fall). Survey locations are few for the large
coastline but consist among the best available information for this region.

Coastal seabird surveys were carried out using beach scans, percent scans, and
transect surveys. Surveys were done by one person (Falk Huettmann, Mike Suitor
for Iturup and Sakhalin 2004). Beach scans are 360° scans of an area as far as
the naked eye can detect species. These scans are snapshots in time. Percent
scans were done where seabird flocks were large. The percentages of the species
and their age classes were identified; for larger flocks, numbers were
estimated. When noted, transect surveys were conducted along beaches. In this
instance the shoreline was followed at a constant even pace along the waters
edge representative for the beach. Seabirds were classified to species and age
class; moult and gender information was only sometimes possible. In all
surveys, binoculars were used to confirm the identities and age of seabirds.
Waterbirds were scanned for leg flegs, wing tags and other marks.

Data were collected in the field on paper and notebooks, and in the office
coded and transcribed, and then checked on hard copy and Excel spread sheets.
Data were pre-processed by Falk Huettmann and Mike Suitor, and finalized by
Jana Kotzerka and checked by Mike Suitor and Daisuke Kawai. Species
identification and bird numbers are done by Falk Huettmann and Mike Suitor (for
data 2004).