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The present situation


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Biological Station Rybachy belongs to the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. It used to be 100% state-funded.

Over the last 30 years only ornithological research is being done at the station. The stations' structrure includes administration (3 persons), researchers (9 persons, incl. one D.Sc. and four Ph.D.), and technicians (16 persons). In winter (December to February) most researchers stay at the Zoological Institute in St.Petersburg. Annually, several Ph.D. students and undergraduate students from Russia (mostly from St.Petersburg University and Kaliningrad University) and Germany are pursuing their studies at the station.

The station occupies a two-storey building in the village of Rybachy and 2,5 h of land, owned by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The station has facilities for keeping experimental birds in an indoor aviary. The station owns 8 PCs (4 of which are modern ones) and other office equipment. The ornithological database includes information on the sex and age structure, biometrics, and moult status of over 2 million birds of 189 species, mainly passerines. Data on further 75 000– 100 000 birds are added to the database annually.

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Besides the building, the station runs two field stations. The joint Russian-German field station is situated on Rossitten Cape near the main building in Rybachy. The field site has been operated since autumn 1993 and has 73 standard mist nets with an overall length of 511 m. The work of this field station is based on the agreement between the Biological Station Rybachy and Vogelwarte Radolfzell (Max-Planck-Society, Germany). Nets are open since March 27 until June 10 and since June 30 until November 6. Annually, up to 50 000 birds of ca. 120 species are trapped in mist nets, ringed, and biometrical data are collected from them. The data are owned jointly by Russian and German scientists. Bird trapping and ringing is done by the Biological Station's members and volunteers from Russia, Germany, and the U.K.
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Ten kilometres to the south-west of Rybachy, and 23 km from the base of the Courish Spit, is situated the field station "Fringilla" which has been functioning without pause since 1957.

It now operates 4 large Rybachy traps for trapping migrating birds. In "Fringilla" birds are trapped since April 1 until November 1 without interruptions.

Trapping and ringing is done by the Biological Station's members and volunteers from the Western Europe.
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