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RESPONDENT
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Victor Zubakin
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SITE NAME
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Saint Lawrence Island, Savonga vicinity, USA
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| 307-78-09(h) // vas@zubakin.msk.ru; zubakin@rbcu.ru // Shosse Entusiastov, 100-2-212, Moscow, 111531, Russia
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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Expedition of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on seabird monitoring
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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20.06
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28.08
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3
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| The amount of snow acumulated by spring was low. Spring was unusually early, and summer very dry, sunny and relatively warm. By 20 June snow was absent from coastal lowland tundra and the settlement, and plant vegetation started there, resulting in clear greenish aspect, in contrast with yellow aspect of the same places in late June in 2000-2001. Mosquitoes appeared on 25 June which is 3 weeks earlier than in 2001 and almost 2 weeks (12 days) earlier than in 2000.
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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: |
high
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Breeding conditions:
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As previosly in 2000-2001 Snowy Owls were never seen during period of studies. Solitary Rough-legged Buzzard was seen once on 17 July in the central lowland part of the island. Long-tailed and Pomarine skuas were always common in tundra, while Arctic Skuas were considerably less common. Skua nesting was not observed in Savonga vicinity, but Long-tailed Skua, probably, bred somwhere on the island because two flying juvelines led by an adult bird were seen on 5 August. Juveniles were not observed in other species of skuas. Coastal area of the island (coast, stony talus and sea-side tundra) was inhabited by numerous Arctic Foxes, Ravens, Herring and Glaucous gulls.
First chicks of Thick-billed and Common murres appeared on 22 and 26 July, respectively, which 3 days earlier than in 2001. Hatching in Crested and Least auklets was recorded on 24 and approximately 16 July, 4 and at least 10 days respectively earlier than in 2001. Chicks of Kittiwakes appeared on 12-14 July. Reproduction in Thick-billed and Common murres, in Crested and Least auklets and in Kittiwakes was successful.
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Root Voles were very abundant in tundra - considerably more so than in 2001, and similar to 2000. Numbers of Cletrionomys voles in stony talus and on the coast remained high for the second year in a row. Both species were very numerous during the whole summer.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Microtus oeconomus | abundant |
| Clethrionomys rutilus | abundant |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
| Studies were carried out on seabird colonies near northern coast of the island, in Savonga settlement vicinity (about 15 km to the west and east of the settlement). Southern and southwestern coast were visited on 13-17 July. Detailed information about nest success of seabirds on St.- Laurence Island is available in Alaska Branch of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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