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RESPONDENT
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Pavel Tomkovich
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SITE NAME
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St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands, Alaska, USA
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| Contact
details (phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (495)6294474/(495)629-48-25(fax, for P. Tomkovich) // pst@zmmu.msu.ru // Zoological Museum, Bolshaya Nikitskaya St., 6, Moscow, 125009, Russia |
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PROJECT DETAILS
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Project name:
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Numbers of breeding Rock Sandpipers at St. Paul Island, Pribilof Islands |
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey:
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Team
size:
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26.04 |
20.05 |
4 |
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WEATHER CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Mild winter without much snow falling (similar to most of south Alaska) resulted in almost complete absence of snow cover since late February (in late April we found snow only in hill-side depressions) and in an extremely dry spring. Maritime climate is responsible for only slight variation in air temperatures: according to information of the local Weather Station they fluctuated between -6.1 and +5.0øC and -4.4 and +8.3øC in April and first 20 days of May, respectively. Fourteen and 5 days had average day temperatures under 0øC during April and the same period of May. |
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
February |
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| Date of ice-break
on rivers: |
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| Date of final loss
of snow: |
Feb/Mar |
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BIOTIC CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
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Breeding conditions:
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Only Pribilof Island Shrew Sorex pribilofensis of micromammalia is known to inhabit St. Paul I., while Brown Lemming Lemmus trimucronatus inhabits St. George I. Neither of these mammals appears to have strong influence on abundance of Arctic Foxes, which rely mostly on foods from the littoral zone and therefore are concentrated along the coast. Accordingly, large-scale fluctuations of breeding success of inland birds due to short-term annual variation in numbers of Arctic Foxes are unlikely.
First inland aerial displays of Rock Sandpipers Calidris ptilocnemis, the main breeding wader species, were recorded on 21 April, however most of these waders were flocking on sea shores, and only several inland spots were occupied by birds in the last days of April. Gradually more and more territorial sandpipers could be found inland as well as diversity of other waders and waterfowl was increasing in early May. It looked like the start of incubation in Rock Sandpipers peaked in the third week of May when also Snow Buntings Plectrophenax nivalis behaved as nesting birds and an incomplete clutch of Pintail Anas acuta was found. |
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Rodent dynamics:
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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