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RESPONDENT
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Don Sutherland
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SITE NAME
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Pen Islands, Canada
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| My guess is that there was widespread nest failure of shorebirds and many other arctic-subarctic bird species in eastern Canada. When we arrived at the Pen Islands (Ontario/Manitoba border of Hudson Bay) on June 23rd, things really hadn't started yet. There was still substantial ice on many of the larger lakes, large snowdrifts in the lee ofridges and spruce copses, hardly a hint of plant growth anywhere, and several inches of water on the wet tundra.
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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: |
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Breeding conditions:
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| Many of the local species including the common shorebird species (Stilt Sandpiper, Dunlin, Least Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe, Short-billed Dowitcher, Hudsonian Godwit,Whimbrel, Red-necked Phalarope, American Golden-Plover) were displaying, but weren't behaving as though they had initiated nests. After a few days we started flushing more birds from scrapes and partial clutches and by the time we departed on July 7th there were even some clutches starting to hatch (e.g., Least Sandpiper, Stilt Sandpiper). More telling though were the large flocks of shorebirds present throughout the period. These were either failed breeders or birds which had just opted not to try. Among these were substantial mixed flocks of Hudsonian Godwits and Short-billed Dowitchers (which breed more commonly in the taiga-tundra transition) and large mixed species aggregations including large numbers of Stilt Sandpipers (150 in one flock). Many of these flocks were concentrated in ponds along the coast, but were also present six or more kilometres inland. Also of interest was the near absence of both Semipalmated Plover and Semipalmated Sandpiper. These should have been present and not uncommon (as they have been in other years) on the gravel ridges bordering wet tundra near the coast, but we saw very few of either and found no nests. Other species which typically breed further inland (e.g., both yellowlegs and Bonaparte's Gulls) were also loafing in ponds near the coast. Waterfowl also had a poor time of it. Large numbers of scaup of both species just hanging around and no evidence of breeding even by Long-tailed Ducks which were just sitting in pairs on ponds. There was a total failure of the Snow Goose colony and near total failure of locally breeding Canada Geese. This phenomenon wasn't restricted to the Ontario coast as Churchill apparently was a bust as were other places in the eastern Canadian Arctic.
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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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