24 January 2020
24.01.2020 - As part of activities for monitoring and inventorying biodiversity, during the past weekend (11-12.01.2020) the Kosovo Institute for Nature Protection, with the help of volunteers from “Wildlife Albanian Photographers - WAPH”, “Kosova Wildlife Care - KWC”, as well as nature-loving experts, conducted for the second consecutive time in Kosovo the International Waterbird Census.
This activity, carried out within the framework of IWC 2020 (International Waterbird Census) organized globally by Wetlands International for 54 years, included almost all countries where water basins are present.
Considering the cold of these days, the Liqeni i Livoqit and Liqeni i Përlepnicës were completely frozen, and therefore were not visited at all. Liqeni i Vërmices, which was almost dry due to the drop in water level, apart from a part of the remaining water surfaces that were frozen, was also not visited. Liqeni i Vasileves as well as Ligatina e Hencit, although frozen, were visited by the field team, during which only a few species of non-water birds were recorded. The only surfaces, partially frozen, where water birds were present were Liqeni i Badovcit, Liqeni i Batllaves, Liqeni i Radoniqit, as well as the small lake around the Obiliq thermal power plant (near the Mirash Waste Landfill), where a large number of water birds were also sheltered.
From the collected results, it can be observed that 12 species of waterfowl were observed with a total number of 9,334 individuals. The majority of the waterfowl counted on this occasion were Anas platyrhynchos with 7,315 individuals, Anas crecca with 1,330 individuals, and Chroicocephalus ridibundus with 453 individuals, which together accounted for 97.49% of the total number of birds. For more, the full report from the international waterfowl census.