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SITE NAME
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East Bay, Southampton Island, Nunavut, Canada
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| (613)990-2384/(613)998-0458(fax) // paulallen.smith@ec.gc.ca // National Wildlife Research Centre, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0H3, Canada
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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Shorebirds of East Bay
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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1.06
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27.07
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4
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Snow cover reduced to 50% on 17 June and completely melted on 24 June. Though spring snow melt was comparatively late, the temperatures in June were average. The heavy snow cover melted during several very warm days in mid-June. Due to heavy spring snow cover, a large proportion of geese did not breed across the eastern Arctic.
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
17.06
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
24.06
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
low
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Breeding conditions:
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Arctic Foxes and jaegers were present in moderate abundance, and the reproductive success of the birds was correspondingly poor. Semipalmated Sandpipers and Dunlin (low Arctic breeders) appear to be increasing in abundance at this site, while Red Phalarope and White-rumped Sandpiper (mid-high Arctic breeders) seem to be decreasing. The first breeding records for Dunlin at this site were in 2004.
This year was widely considered a catastrophic breeding year for geese in the eastern Arctic due to heavy spring snow cover. Our data suggest that the reproductive success of shorebirds was not affected to the same extent. Mayfield estimate of hatch success in shorebirds was 0.13, and hatching success in Sabine's Gulls was above 37% ('04/'05 nest monitoring for gulls was spotty - these are the % of nests where we saw chicks, but others could have been missed).
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Rodent dynamics:
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| This was yet another year at East Bay with few lemmings; almost no lemmings have been seen since 2000. Capture data on snap trap transects are available, but no data for change in abundance.
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Rodent species recorded:
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| Latin | Abundance |
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| Lemmus trimucronatus | rare |
| Dicrostonyx groenlandicus | rare |
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
| Detailed studies of all shorebirds species were made. We studied terns, gulls and waterfowl less intensively. All parameters of basic breeding ecology were recorded, such as nest success, nesting densities, timing of peak lay and hatch, etc.
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