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RESPONDENT
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Pavel Tomkovich
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SITE NAME
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Barrow, 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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Banding of Dunlins, migrating to East Asia
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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2.07
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6.07
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7
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Locals have reported cold June which resulted in slow snow thawing, although not much snow was accumulated during the winter. This possibly resulted in decreased breeding densities of some bird species and late breeding of some pairs (in early July fresh eggs were found in some Dunlin and Lapland Bunting). In late June and early July weather improved dramatically, and mass emerging of Diptera flies (Chironomidae, Tipulidae) as well as hatch of wader chicks occurred in early July.
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
average
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Breeding conditions:
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Arctic Foxes were seen twice; Snowy Owls were also present in small number, while numbers of non-breeding Long-tailed Skuas were high with increasing flock size through early July. Arctic Skua did not breed, and only one pair of Pomarine Skua nested (clutch of one egg). All these observations indicate obvious decline in populations of rodents after their peak numbers in previous two years. Rodent numbers were likely high enough locally in early June to induce some Pomarine Skuas to nest, and in early July lemming numbers were not yet at their low.
At hatch period density of successfully breeding Dunlins was similar in 2000 and 2001, while density of Pectoral Sandpipers in 2001 was rather low. Density of Semipalmated Sandpipers also possibly reduced. Low breeding numbers of American Golden-Plover, Semipalmated Plover, Turnstone and Western Sandpiper are probably typical for this area. A general impression is that nesting success of most tundra birds in the surveyed area was average or even above average in spite of rodent decline.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| During our wader banding activity from 2-6 July many signs of former presence of lemmings could be seen everywhere, including moderate number of under-snow nests. Only three live lemmings were seen during this period by 7 people, which indicated declining population.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Lemmus trimucronatus | common |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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