Keywords
Arctic tundra
Lagopus spp
non-breeding season
prey availabiity
railway bridges
snow-covered period
How to Cite
Abstract
Winter occurrence of the gyrfalcon Falco rusticolus in the Russian Arctic is known mainly from scattered observations and faunistic summaries, while repeated, dated records from the snow-covered season are scarce. We compiled gyrfalcon observations from the Yamal Peninsula during November–April 2024–2026 from field teams, railway personnel and local observers along the Obskaya–Karskaya railway and parallel road corridor. Ptarmigans Lagopus spp. were counted on fixed-width vehicle transects as an index of potential prey availability. We documented 58 gyrfalcon records involving 77 individuals; 33 records (43 individuals) occurred in November–February. Forty-eight records (67 individuals) were from 30 railway bridges between 193 and 563 km of the railway, up to 70.3°N. Thirteen bridges yielded records on more than one occasion, and ten did so in more than one winter, documenting recurrent use of particular bridge locations. At two bridges approximately 140–150 km north of Erkuta, gyrfalcons were observed feeding and departing with ptarmigans. Forty-three retained ptarmigan counts confirmed Lagopus presence in all three surveyed blocks, but no standardized counts were performed in the northern bridge sector. The bridge data are presence-only and cannot estimate abundance, detection probability, habitat preference, or individual residency. To our knowledge, they provide the first spatially referenced, repeated series of winter and early-spring gyrfalcon records across the northern Yamal railway corridor and show that artificial elevated structures form recurrent observation and use sites during the snow-covered season.
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