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RESPONDENT
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Joseph Liebezeit
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SITE NAME
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Teshekpuk Lake - Olak, Alaska, USA
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| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| 503-241-7231/503-241-7925(fax) // jliebezeit@wcs.org // Wildlife Conservation Society, North America Program - Pacific West office, 718 SW Alder Street, Suite 210, Portland, OR 97205, USA
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PROJECT DETAILS |
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Project name:
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Nest survival of tundra-nesting birds and human development on the North Slope of Alaska
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Start of survey:
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End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
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03.06
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19.07
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4
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WEATHER
CONDITIONS
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Weather conditions: |
| Average snow cover was approximately 54% on 7 June. Days were consistently colder than in 2004 for much of the season. Daytime temperatures in June were typically below 5øC. Mosquitoes did not emerge until early July this season. There were no snow storms but we had a wind/rain storm in late June. The stream next to our camp broke up on 6-7 June.
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| Date of 50%
snow-cover: |
8.06
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| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
6-7.06
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| Date of final loss of
snow: |
17.06
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BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
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| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
low
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Breeding conditions:
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Nesting success was very high at this site with all species (except for one) having Mayfield nesting success estimates greater than 50%. As for potential nest predators, Arctic Fox and Common Ravens were very rare while Glaucous Gulls and jaegers (Parasitic and Long-tailed) were quite common.
We discovered and monitored all nests on (or near) 16 10-ha study plots every 2-6 days until nest fate was determined. We discovered 170 nests of nineteen species from 11 June to 18 July. Of the 170 nests, 25 were discovered off plot. Ninety-three nests successfully hatched/fledged and 40 failed. We were unable to reliably assess the fate of 31 nests. Nest predation was the only documented cause of nest failure (33 of 40 nest failures; 83%). Other sources of nest failure were abandonment (n = 3), predation due to observers (n = 3), and trampling (n = 1). Trampling was most likely due to caribou. Mayfield estimates of nesting success for the 3 most common species were: Lapland Longspur (n=60): 0.626, Pectoral Sandpiper (n=27): 0.748, and Semipalmated Sandpiper (n=13): 1.00.
We conducted three10-minute point count surveys for potential nest predators on each plot at three different times (three replicates) during the course of the season. A total of eight species of potential nest predators were detected (n= # of detections): Glaucous Gull (n = 52), Parasitic Jaeger (n = 29), Sabine's gull (n = 17) Long-tailed Jaeger (n = 16), arctic tern (n=13), red fox (n = 1), Gyrfalcon (n = 1), and lemming sp. (n = 1).
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Rodent dynamics:
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| Lemming numbers were low. All 4 observers during almost 2 months in the field only observed lemmings six times. No trend in lemming abundance was apparent during the course of the season. We did not capture lemmings.
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Rodent species recorded:
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Summary
of fauna studies: |
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