Пяро арлана
Выдавец: Беларусь
Памер: 211с.
Мінск 1991
Proclaimed a biological game researve a few years back, the herons' ancestoral lands seem practically unprotected.
But poachers are not the only curse. The buck would be recently passed on to them for all the faults and bad management of the forest ministers and un-authoritative foresters, for the arbitrary rule of state committees and departments, for the ineffectiveness of nature-protection bodies. The responsibility is both upon those who poorly protect nature and those who could hot efficiently outline the role of this protection, the boundaries of the protected and the amenability of law-breakers.
Laws in Belorussia, too moderate as compared with those in the Baltic states or other Socialist countries, give the poacher a chance of living on the fat of the land. Scanty personnel of forest guard, lack of material incentive with the foresters and huntsmen, anti-ecological activities of the industrial and agricultural state committees and departments which are hardly answerable for anything bring to nought even the effect of the feeble laws as they stand today.
It is to be regretted that today's legislation does not provide any definite rules of human behaviour towards nature.
The population of the herons' megalopolis is observed to have shrunk of late. The number of empty nests grows larger. What was the reason for this? Land-reclamation in the Polesye and subsequent worsening of the forage reserve? Greater game-shooting of herons during their migration or wintering in the south or aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster? Rush of curious persons to the nesting-place
following some free and easy publications in the press... the scientists are expected to make clear these points.
The family Ardeidae in our parts comprises five genera, i. e.
true herons — Ardea, Linnaeus, 1758
egrets — Egretta, Forster, 1817
night herons — Nycticorax, Forster, 1817 little bitterns— Ixobrychus, Billberg, 1828 litterns — Botaurus, Stephens, 1819.
The Grey Heron — Ardea Cinnerea. L.
The local names are "kanya" (Zhitovichi district), "valya- vakha" (Krasnopolsk district), "chaplya" (elsewhere).
The largest of all our herons. The bird's back is bluish- grey on his back and creamy-white beneath, on the front ot the neck and breast, white on the forehead and crown, barred with black over the eyes. At the back of the head the black plumage turns into a black crest. Three streaks made up of large oblong-shaped black spots run from the throat over the lower part of the neck, like a cravat. The breast is ornamented with elongated feathers. The principal quills of the wings and the larger flight feathers covering them are black. The main tails are brownish-grey at the base and black at the tips. The bill is yellow-brown and the legs are greenish-grey. The iris of the eye is goldish-yellow, this gives the heron a typical snaky gaze.
As regards its struc+ure, this is a typical heron: a small head, pointed straight bill, long neck and legs and a short tail. The grey heron has wide wings. Not particularly graceful when in flight. It folds its neck to form the Latin "S", when viewed from aside, and draws in its head. The voice is far from musical, it sounds like the squeak of an unoiled hinge.
The grey heron weighs c., 2250 g., its wing is c., 480 mm long, the bill may reach 122 mm.
The nest is cone-shaped and is chosen by the male, but both parents work together to build it from dry twigs and rods. The nest shelters 3 to 7 eggs (most often, 4 to 5) which are sky-blue and are 59,8 by 43.7 mm in size. Both male and female sit on the eggs, but the former spends less time in the nest. The hatching takes 26 to 27 days.
The grey heron feeds on small fish, frogs, tadpoles, rodents, lizards and snakes. It is nocturnal in habit and can be often seen standing on the edge of a spit, in a shallow spot or shoal of a river. As it catches sight of prey, a quick thrust of the bill follows. Similarly, the heron will watch patiently for a long time at the hole of a vole-mouse.
Purple Heron — Ardea Purpurea. L.
The local name is "chyrvonaya chaplya" (Pinsk district).
A large bird, only a little smaller than a goose. It weighs 1.2 kg. The plumage is dark-hued for the most part. It is greyish-brown on the back, red on the head, neck and breast, dark-grey on the wings. The primaries of the wings are black, the legs and bill are long and yellowish- brown. As distinct from the grey heron, it seldom lands on trees. Its cry is not very loud and can be conveyed by the sound "era- ank".
The purple heron's habitat in the USSR is its European part — from the southern regions it extends to 52—53 degrees of latitude north of the eguator and to the lower reaches of the Volga in the east. The bird is also found in the Caucasus, Middle Asia, Kazakhstan and South Seaside.
The nestings of he purple heron in Belorussia mastly pertain to its southern part, particularly to Polesye. In the Snyadin and Pererovsk forestries located within the Pri- pet Landscape and Hydrology State Reserve individual specimens have been reported every summer since 1970, which bears testimony to this species' probable nesting.
The purple heron takes to the floodlands along the shores of lakes and the course of former river-beds, which are covered with reeds, rushes or osier. They settle in pairs or form small heronries. The herons make their nests on broken reeds. A nest shelters 4 to 5 greenish-blue eggs. The young natch out towards the end of June. They try their wings some time between July 25 and August 5.
Like their grey cousins, purple herons feed on fish, frogs and aqueous invertebrates. In Kazakhstan, they have been noticed to eat locusts.
Because of their scarcity herons are not commercial game. Their protection measures in the republic might include ascertaining their habitat and placing further restrictions on their shooting as game.
Great White Heron — Egretta Alba. L.
A bird approximately as large as a goose. Weighs c., 2 kg. It is c., 0.9 — 1.2 m. long. The plumage is purely white, the eyes are encircled with yellow rings. The legs and bill are black with a reddish tint, the base of the bill is yellow. Its flight bears a resemblance to that of the grey heron. Its cry is a raucaus creak.
The great white heron is a rare bird and it is an entry in the BSSR "Red Data Book". In the USSR, it is found from Moldavia and Southern Ukraine to the lower reaches of the Volga and the Urals and also from Kazakhstan to the Far-eastern seaside.
In the BSSR, if is discovered in the Polesye. Its migration to Vitebsk region is on record. In 1972—1979, its nesting was reported in the flood-lands of the Pripet within the territory of Petrikovsky district. There are reports about white herons communities among grey herons in the low reaches of the Lan’.
The birds live ot the shores of lakes and along rivers and former river-beds. The nests are built high up in trees — oaks, and black poplars. The diameter of a nest ranges from 0.6 to 0.8 metre. Dry twigs and rods are used as building materials. The great white heron lays 5 greenish-blue eggs. The fledgelings make their appearance on natural water bodies towards the end of the first part of July. They are due to migrate south in mid-September. Great white herons feed on insects, fish and small rodents.
One of the peculiarities of the bird is its ability to switch over to a group of foords that is the best-available in a given locality. The other species of herons are totally unable to do that. Tnis peculiarity is used by men for studying the natural hotbeds of tularemia.
This rare bird is exceptionally cautious and easily frightened. This is the result of its continuous hunt on the part of man — with the aim of obtaining the notorious aigrettes (its plume of feathers). The bird will choose its feeding places in open country so as to be alert to danger all the time. When scared away, it takes itself off and for long. While on flight, it is very watchful: discerning a human figure down below it immediately shoots upwards. It is very noseless in habit, to all appearances of wariness, too.
Owing to their small number, herons are of no significance as commercial game but preservation of this species calls for urgent measures of finding out their nesting-places and placing them under strict protection of the state.
Little White Heron — Egretta, Garzetta. L.
The local name is "byalushka" (Zhitkovichi district).
A small bird, purely white in colour, it weighs c., 500 g. On the back of its head it carries a plume of 2—3 long narrow feathers. The feathers on the breast are long, so are those of the upper part of the back. Besides, they are „unzipped,, and reach the end of the tail, which gives the bird a fairytail beauty. The bill is black, yellow at the base. The face is bald, having a bluish tint. The fraenum and legs are black. The iris is bright orange. The younger birds are devoid of the ornamental feathers, the lower jaw is yellow.
In the USSR, the little white heron is found in Moldavia, the lower reaches of the Danube, Dnestr an Dnieper to the
regions along the Sea of Azov, Volga flood-lands and the Ural, they also live in the Caucasus (excluding its central part), over the widdle stretch of the Amu Darya and Syr Darya and also in the south-west of Turkmenia.
There was only one nesting inthe neighbourhood of Pinsk discovered in the seventies this century. Since early in the seventies little white herons have been registered annually in the middle reach of the Pripet—in Zhitkovichi and Petrikov districts. The greatest number of registrations fall to the late 70s when even flocks of 3 to 7 specimens were observed. As often as not, little white herons were seen hanging together with their great white cousins. In the southern habitats they make their nests amidst the rushes or in the trees but they prefer "high-rise" apartments. Their home has the look of the same upturned cone with holey walls. But the nest is chosen by the female bird and no opportunity of occupying an empty nest is missed.
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