Studies on breeding shorebirds at Medusa Bay, Taimyr, in Summer 2002

In the summer of 2002 a combined Dutch-Russian expedition took place to the Willem Barentz field station at Medusa Bay near Dikson in north-western Taimyr, Russia. The expedition was organised by Alterra and the Agricultural Department of the Dutch Embassy in Moscow. Research questions addressed by the Alterra team and basic results obtained during the 2002 season are presented in this report. More elaborate analyses and discussion of the data will be made elsewhere. Where useful, results are compared with data collected in 2000 and 2001. Subjects of study generally concerned breeding biology of arctic breeding shorebirds, especially with respect to timing of breeding.