|
|
|
|
SITE NAME
|
|
Arctic Coastal Plain, Chukchi Sea/Beaufort Sea Coastline, Alaska, USA
|
|
| Contact details
(phone/fax//e-mail//address): |
| 907-786-3908/907-786-3641 // Christian_Dau@fws.gov // U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Migratory Bird Management Division, Mail Stop 201, 1011 E. Tudor Road, Anchorage, AK 99503-6199, USA
|
|
PROJECT DETAILS |
|
|
|
Start of survey:
|
End
of survey: |
Team
size: |
|
25.06
|
27.06
|
|
|
WEATHER
CONDITIONS
|
|
|
|
Weather conditions: |
| During coastal aerial surveys from 25-27 June 2006, shore fast ice cover was observed to be more extensive than in 2005 (24-27 June) in the Chukchi Sea and similar in the Beaufort Sea. Shore fast ice cover east to Brownlow Point on the Beaufort Sea coast was as or more extensive than in 2005 but it appeared darker and was probably melting more rapidly. As in previous years since 1999, open water was present near all large river mouths. From Brownlow Point east to the Canadian border, shore fast ice cover was similar to 2005 but with more open water in lagoons. Again, ice appeared darker suggesting more rapid melting this spring. Beaufort Sea barrier islands, favored as nesting sites by lesser snow geese, brant, common eiders, glaucous gulls, Sabine's gulls and Arctic terns were mostly inaccessible to terrestrial predators due to open water during the survey.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Date of ice-break on
rivers: |
|
|
| Date of final loss of
snow: |
|
|
BIOTIC
CONDITIONS
|
| Rodents abundance evaluation: |
|
|
|
Breeding conditions:
|
Lesser snow goose nests on Howe Island had mostly hatched and many broods were seen versus in 2005 when numerous incubating birds and few broods were observed. A single lesser snow goose brood and two greater white-fronted goose broods seen near the north end of Kasegaluk Lagoon, on the Chukchi Sea coast, were the only other indications of hatching. In 2005, with the exception of lesser snow geese at Howe Island, there was no indication of hatching in other species.
No snow was present onshore throughout the survey area; however, most larger lakes along both the Chukchi and Beaufort sea coastlines were mostly ice covered. There was no observable indication of green-up in coastal meadows.
Snowy owls were broadly abundant in 2006 and several pomarine jaegers were observed in the Barrow area indicating increased microtine populations.
|
|
|
Rodent dynamics:
|
|
|
|
Rodent species recorded:
|
|
|
|
|
Summary
of fauna studies: |
|
|
|