Turkey names 13th Ramsar site

20/11/2009

The Ministry of Environment and Forestry has designated Lake Kuyucuk (Kuyucuk Gölü) (416 hectares, 40°45’N 043°27’E) as Turkey’s 13th Wetland of International Importance. As summarized by Nadezhda Alexeeva from the RIS, this Wildlife Reserve is one of the most important wetlands of Kars province in northeastern Turkey – the freshwater stream- and spring-fed lake is surrounded by treeless steppe and sparse Phragmites reed patches, and the area may be typical of what much of the Anatolian Steppe grassland-wetland community used to consist of before widespread degradation of its water bodies over the past several hundred years.

Located along the African-Eurasian migration flyways, the lake is a crucial stop-over and breeding site for many bird species, including ten globally threatened. Every fall the site hosts up to 30,000 Ruddy Shelducks. The lake is currently the only source of water for the three surrounding villages. Human activities around the lake include cereal production and livestock grazing. The area is attractive for birdwatching and nature tourism; in 2009 it received the European Destination of Excellence award. Threats are seen from over-grazing (especially in reed beds that provide important habitats for birds), disturbance for birds caused by cattle, and pollution from surrounding villages and livestock farming.

Source:

http://www.ramsar.org/cda/ramsar/display/main/main.jsp?zn=ramsar&cp=1-26-45-84^24238_4000_0

Internation Nature School visited Lake Kuyucuk

United Nations Award-Winner, International Nature School, an education program organized by Nature Society, was held for the fifth time this year and brought together fifteen young students from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey. Open to those undergraduates and final year’ undergraduates who wish to take an active part in the conservation of nature and to improve their understanding on natural world, and to apply for participating free-of-charge, Nature School started in Sarıkamış Çamkar Hotel in Kars, in cooperation and hosting of KuzeyDoğa Society on 26 October 2009. Four Azerbaijani, three Armenian, four Georgian, and four Turkish students will participate in the 5th semester of Nature School that provides the youth in search of taking an active part in conservation efforts with experiences, and that aims at establishing a human resource in this field for the sake of effectively preserving the environment of Turkey and Caucasia Biodiversity hotspot.

To be organized in two one-week’ sections, Nature School will start with fundamental ecology and biology knowledge and end with the subjects of problem analysis and sustainable solutions. Able to provide the young ones with the on-site opportunity to see the nature-related problems and their solutions and to gain experiences through the lectures of different experts, Nature School will also play a significant part in the fulfillment of the lack of human resources regarding the nature conservation in the participating countries.

In Nature School, for which admissions are free-of-charge, the young individuals from Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Turkey will be educated in Kars and Rize in the form of two modules as fieldworks and interactive events.

During the initial 4 days of the education, which will last 6 days, the students will be lectured by experts in many subjects varying from general ecology to the geology of Caucasia, from the biogeography of the Caucasian area to the analysis of utilization of natural lands, and they will visit the important natural areas of the province of Kars during the remaining two days. Nature school participants will on the first day of the fieldworks visit Sarıkamış Forests and Allahuekber Mountains, an important natural region, and on the second day, will go to the Lake Kuyucuk, Turkey’s 13th East Anatolia’s first and unique RAMSAR area, selected by the European Commission as European Destinations of Excellence (EDEN) in 2009, around which fieldworks are carried out by KuzeyDoğa Society.

By now, 75 young nature conservationists have graduated from blue-roofed, green walled, Nature School that provides, in addition to the theoretical information, practices focused on “learning by experiencing”. A significant portion of the Nature School graduates are actively working for many nature conservation institutions such as TEMA, WWF Turkey, Nature Society, Ege Natural Life Conservation Society and KuzeyDoğa Society. Thanks to the newly graduates, Nature School, which has come to be an international institution, will contribute to conservation of not only Turkey’s nature but of Caucasian Biodiversity Hotspot, one of the most important 34 hotspots of the world.

Kuyucuk Station 2009 Fall Season Volunteers

1-Güler Bozok (Hacettepe University)
2-Yiğit Ozan Çolak (Hacettepe University)
3-Abdurrahman Sefalı (Yüzüncü Yıl University)
4-Libor Praus (Czech Republic)
5-Jindrich Sedlacek (Czech Republic)
6-İlknur Çelebi (Kafkas University)
7-Remzi Cevher (Kafkas University)
8-Taner Şimay (Kafkas University)
9-Jerry Lewis (England)
10-Ron Clevely (England)
11-Cihangir Kirazlı (Anadolu University)
12-Seda Önemci (Uludağ University)
13-Esma Akdoğan (Gazi University)
14-Kerem Soyöz (Istanbul)
15-Kirsty Jane Lees (Scotland)
16-Ahmet Yesari Selçuk (Hacettepe University)
17-Cihan Odabaşı (Hacettepe University)
18-Ayşen Erdil (WWF - Turkey)
19-Nergis Yazgan (WWF - Turkey)
20-İlker Burgaç (WWF - Turkey)
21-Dave Hazard (England)
22-Robert Shaw (England)
23-Vedat Güç (Istanbul)

Kuyucuk Bird Ringing Station End Season

Two of Turkey’s three bird-ringing stations, namely Kuyucuk and Aras Bird-Ringing Stations, have just ended their fall 2009 studies. Total number of the birds ringed in both stations through the fieldworks conducted by KuzeyDoğa Society, Kars Directorate of Environment and Forestry, Iğdır Directorate Environment and Forestry and Kafkas University, reached collectively to 5439.

Kuyucuk Bird Research and Education Center is situated by the Lake of Kuyucuk, in the district of Arpaçay, province of Kars. In fall 2007, the bird-ringing studies were initiated at Kuyucuk Bird Research and Education Center, and this year’s works started on 21 August 2009 and ended on 26 October 2009. For the period of the aggregate 66 days of ringing, 2571 birds from 67 species were ringed. 17 persons from Hacettepe, Gazi, Anadolu, Yüzüncü Yıl, Uludağ and Kafkas Universities worked voluntarily, and 5 expert ringers provided us with support during the activities. And also, during the observations by Kirsty Jane Lees, a Scottish volunteer of us, a goldeneye was classified to be a member in the fauna of Kuyucuk whose number of the species then became 212.

26 October 2009

Today is the last day of fall season 2009 at Kuyucuk Bird Research and Education Center. We ringed 30 birds out of 9 species.

Today's birds are:

Snipe
Corn Bunting
Reed Bunting
Water Pipit
Shoveler
Moustached Warbler
Calandra Lark
Jack Snipe
Robin

25 October 2009

Today we ringed 18 birds out of 6 species.

Today's birds are:

Dunlin
Corn Bunting
Reed Bunting
Chiffchaff
Calandra Lark
Jack Snipe

24 October 2009

Today we ringed 22 birds out of 7 species.

Today's birds are:

Snipe
Corn Bunting
Bluethroat
Reed Bunting
Water Pipit
Calandra Lark
Jack Snipe