MONITORING AND SURVEY OF RAPTORS SITES

Monitoring (in 1992-2000) concerned three issues connected with breeding populations of seven rare and endangered species of raptors: the Osprey Pandion haliaetus, White-tailed Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla, Golden Eagle Aquila chrysaetos, Lesser Spotted Eagle A. pomarina, Spotted Eagle A. clanga, Red Kite Milvus milvus and Black Kite M. migrans; in 2001 the list was extended with the Eagle Owl Bubo bubo. These were:

• n estimation of the abundance of particular species in the entire territory of the country and on chosen study plots;
• n assessment of the species breeding success;
• n controls if nest-site zone protection is executed in accordance with the former and current, dated 26 September 2001, resolution on conservation of animal species issued by the Ministry of Environment.

The programme covers the whole of Poland, which has been divided into nine regions under the supervision of regional coordinators. Monitoring activities are performed by suitably trained members of the KOO, who carry out controls of the nests and protection zones in virtue of permission from the Ministry of Environment as well as agreements made with the Provincial Nature Conservation Officer and State Forest Administration territorial units involved.

Monitoring of birds of prey consists in performing at least two controls of each breeding territorry annually:

• n in spring - at the beginning of the breeding season, to confirm the presence of birds, define the category of territory and nest occupancy, and check the nest neighbourhood to learn about the functioning of zone protection in the winter;
• n in summer - at the end of the breeding season, to estimate the efficiency of broods and find out how nest-site zone protection was put into effect in the period of reproduction.

In 1993-1997, more than 800 sites of raptors a year were controlled in the whole country (Fig. 1), whereas in 2000 controls covered as many as over 1 600 sites.

Figure 1. Number of the birds of prey sites controlled in Poland by members of the Eagle Conservation Committee in 1982-2000.

EcoFund; Year

The species whose breeding sites were covered with controls falling within the frames of the programme are ranked among the rarest birds of prey occurring in Poland and Europe, and some of them are considered threatened with extinction worldwide:

• the White-tailed Eagle and Spotted Eagle have been acknowledged as globally endangered (the controls covered over 80% of the Polish populations);
• the Lesser Spotted Eagle (controls covered ca 40% of the Polish population), Osprey (ca 65% of the Polish population), Black and Red Kite (over 20% of the Polish populations) - are recognized as species endangered on European scale;
• the Golden Eagle (controls covered over 70% of the Polish population) - is in a danger of extinction in the territory of Poland.

The results of monitoring enabled to assess the abundance of chosen species of raptors in Poland. Based on the present knowledge and the monitoring of recent fluctuations in their numbers, one can state that some of the species included in the programme show a clear upward trend (White-tailed Eagle, Osprey and Red Kite). The abundance of the populations of the Golden, Lesser Spotted and Spotted Eagles probably insignificantly increases or remains at a stable level, while a certain decline (possibly only of local character) can be traced in the Black Kite numbers (Table 1). In the majority of cases, the trends revealed in the Polish populations of the species discussed correspond with the tendencies recorded in other European countries (see Tucker & Heath 1994).

Table 1. Abundance of chosen species of raptors in Poland and Europe, population trends, and number of sites covered by the KOO programme in 1998 (after Hagemeijer & Blair 1997, Adamski et al. 1999, KOO - unpubl. data).

Species	Abundance in Europe	Abundance in Poland	Percentage of the Polish population	Population trend	Number of nest-sites and percentage of the Polish population covered by project
White-tailed Eagle	2400-2450	450-500	19,2		439 (92%)
Spotted Eagle	72-86	15-20	22,9		14* (80%)
Lesser Spotted Eagle	7160-8190	1700-1900	22,8		737 (41%)
Golden Eagle	5240-5620	30-35	0,6		14* (80%)
Osprey	4730-5250	70-75	1,5		47* (65)
Red Kite	17400-28100	600-700	2,8		132 (20%)
Black Kite	25000-30000	300-400	1,5		84 (24%)

	Abundance of the population increasing
	A stable population or an insignificant increase in numbers
	Decrease in the population numbers
*	Number of sites where occurrence of birds was ascertained

A comparison of the size of the Polish populations and of the European ones (without too rough estimates from Russia) reveals that the populations of three species occurring in Poland, namely the White-tailed Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagle and Spotted Eagle, account for a vast proportion, i.e. 19-23%, of the European populations.

Thanks to the donations received from the EcoFund Foundation, it was possible to cover with zone protection considerable parts of the European populations of three species:

19% of the Spotted Eagle population,
16% of the White-tailed Eagle population,
8% of the Lesser Spotted Eagle population.

During the project implementation from 80 to 200 new nests a year were localized in the already known territories, which led to verification of the protection zones borders. Moreover, each year new home ranges of birds of prey were found, in which nests were often discovered (in 60-70% of cases).

Information about all newly localized nests was imparted to the State Forest Administration and Provincial Nature Conservators involved to have protection zones created at the sites. Altogether in 1995-2000, over 1 300 new nests were discovered (table 2).

Table 2. Number of new nests of birds of prey localized in 1995-2000

Species	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	1995-2000
White-tailed Eagle	27	60	36	54	62	77	316
Osprey	2	16	6	4	9	5	42
Lesser Spotted Eagle	65	129	98	114	153	189	748
Red Kite	4	6	6	13	36	23	88
Black Kite	3	5	11	18	22	12	71
Spotted Eagle	2	4	4	4	6	5	25
Golden Eagle	4	7	4	3	6	8	32
TOTAL	107	227	165	210	294	319	1322

In 2000, 1 825 nests of the seven raptor species were controlled in Poland. Taking into consideration the average size of a strict protection zone around one nest (according to the KOO data, it equals 10 ha or so), a joint surface of over 18 000 ha was taken under strict protection within the frames of the project developed by the Eagle Conservation Committee. This constitutes 40% of the entire area of forest strictly protected in Poland (ca 45 000 ha) within nature reserves and national parks.