During the summer field season of 2019, employees of the Russian Arctic National Park first installed the SEELOCK photographic recorder (camera trap) next to the park’s base at the Cape Zhelaniya (Novaya Zemlya). The goal was to observe the pups of the arctic fox hence the location of the camera trap was chosen two kilometers away from the coastline in the ruins of the former military unit.
Besides a series of pictures of arctic fox puppies the camera recorded a bird unusual for the northern reaches of Novaya Zemlya.
«After a detailed study of the photographs, the bird was identified as a juvenile whinchat (Saxicola rubetra)”, said Ivan Mizin, Ph.D., deputy director of Research Department at the Russian Arctic National Park.
“When conducting various field dependent projects at the Cape Zhelaniya, we rarely see small passerines, with the exception of the snow bunting, and a whinchat has never been seen before. Apparently, a young bird accidentally flew so far north from its habitat with the wind».
The whinchat is a species that is quite widespread in the Arkhangelsk region; it perches in wood clearings and floodplains up to the coast of the White and Barents Seas. As for Novaya Zemlya, this species is not indicated in most recent studies. However, in 1927 a vagrant male was noted on the Yuzhny island in the Bay of Melkaya.
A camera trap filmed the whinchat on September 8–9.
«Near the den of the arctic foxes there are many organic debris on which insects could be, and the bird sought them out. The further fate of the bird is unknown,” added Ivan Mizin.
The whinchat has entered the list of species of the Russian Arctic National Park as a «vagrant» bird.
