Studies of avian communities along river Drava, between 2000-2004 (Aves) = Madárközösségek vizsgálata a Dráva somogyi szakasza mentén, 2001-2004-ben

As part of the Duna-Dráva National Park (DDNP) initiated Dráva Monitoring Program involving over 25 indicator taxa groups, monitoring of amphibians and observing water dependent reptiles since 2000 have been conducted by one of the authors (Kovács). The monitoring protocol has been adjusted to reflect principles expressed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Water, Directorate for Nature Protection. In this work we aim to complement our work in quantifying number of species by also identifying water-bodies as possible egg-laying habitats. The basis of the entire program is to estimate possible effects of the planned Croatian hydroelectric power station. Although the location of the station would be on a section of the Dráva that belongs to Croatia, it undoubtedly would influence the water regime and the condition of various wetlands along many sections of the Dráva. Data was collected altogether from 21 sites and from 2002 to 2004 the presence of 2 newt, 8 anuran, 1 terrapin, 1 lizard, and 3 snake species were established in the study area. Using three separate indices we estimated herpetofauna habitat quality of the sampled areas. Besides of the distributional data we present the variance in the water level of the breeding sites between 2002-2004