On the swans of the Franz-Josef Land archipelago and the national park Russian Arctic

In late July - August, 2018 an adult whooper swan Cygnus сygnus was observed moulting on lagoon lakes of Western Northbrook Island. This is the first reliable and well documented record of the swan species in the Franz-Josef Land and the world northernmost record for the whooper swan. Previous two reports of tundra swans in Franz-Josef Land were not well documented and considered unreliable on the species level. Overall, waterfowl Anseriformes of the Franz-Jose Land (Northern cluster of the National park Russian Arctic) by now is represented by 9 species including: Cygnus cygnus (single vagrant), Cygnus sp. (vagrant), Anser brachyrhynchus (staging and migrating), Branta leucopsis (single nesting, vagrant), Branta (bernicla) hrota (sporadically nesting), Anas platyrhynchos (single vagrant), Clangula hyemalis (rare vagrant), Somateria mollissima (common nesting), Somateria spectabilis (rare vagrant). For the Southern cluster of the National park Russian Arctic (northern portion of the Northern Island, Novaya Zemlya), two other swan species are confirmed as vagrants according to the detailed revision of the published reports on swans’ records in Novaya Zemlya, i.e. mute swan Cygnus olor and tundra swan Cygnus (columbianus) bewickii . This finding contradicts recent report of the possible sighting of whooper swans at Cape Zhelania (Mizin 2019).