The record of a pair of the black-necked grebe Podiceps nigricollis in St.-Petersburg

In north-western Russia, only a few records of the Black-necked Grebe Podiceps nigricollis are known. In the Leningrad region until the 1980s, it is recorded 4 times: on 3 June 1959 in the region of the settlement Kuznechnoe; in late May 1967, a pair of birds performing courtship in the bay near the island Kilpola on the Lake Ladoga; in June 1973, in the estuary of the river Pilchuzhnja in south-eastern Ladoga and at the end of May 1979 in the fishponds near the village of Kovashi in the Lomonosov district, where two pairs were swimming close to shore and courting. In 1995, single birds were recorded in shallow well vegetated waters near the islands Seskar (20 June) and Maly Beryozovy (21 June) on the Gulf of Finland. On 26 May 1999 one specimen was observed on the Lake Bolshoe Rakovoye. The only record of the Black-necked grebe in winter time is also known: on 3 February 1996 a bird in the winter plumage was found on the river Okhta in St.-Petersburg. On 31 May 2011 a pair of black-necked grebes was observed in one of the reservoirs of the former sludge beds of South-West Wastewater Treatment Plant, SUE «Vodokanal of St. Petersburg». Between 8 and 10 am the birds, constantly diving, were moving together on the pond. Fishermen from the nearby pond reported that first they had seen them here on 21 May. At the same pond at the same time were recorded: 3 resting females and 8 males of tufted ducks Aythya fuligula, 7 males of pochards A. ferina, 9 coots Fulica atra, 6 feeding black terns Chlidonias niger and some alarming black-headed gulls Larus ridibundus whose nearest nests were located on a nearby pond. The water body was eutrophic, had a sufficiently large open transparent water surface, overgrown of cattail Typha latifolia in places on the periphery. On 24 June grebes were not found in the survey of the ponds. All the finds of this species recorded to date in the Leningrad region, except for one of the winter, fall at the end of May and June. Of the seven records during the migration and breeding periods, in three cases, the birds were observed by pairs (in one of these, two pairs together). The chance of meeting of two birds with one another in this territory hundreds of miles away from the main part of their area is extremely small. Therefore, the fact of registration of the Black-necked Grebe pairs in the region may indicate that the pair-formation in this species, the most gregarious of Palearctic grebes, occurs on wintering grounds or stopover sites during the spring passage.