First Day Off!

Male King Eider just floating around.

Finally, I have some down time to update the blog! Today we took our first day off since we've been here. It was much needed to recuperate a bit before a very busy week next week. Our last check for the first trial of the artificial nest study will be this Friday and Saturday, then Sunday and Monday we will be setting up the next trial.

It appears there has been less activity on both the rehab pads and the undisturbed tundra. At least on the tundra it is probably because birds are incubating their nests and some are gathering in other places to leave. Really, only the males of some species (Pectoral Sandpiper, etc.) are heading out. Also seeing less female phalaropes as they are phalaroping out (I will use this constantly now!). Things really do move fast up here.

Jie looking at a goose flying by on rehab pad.

Gravel and Jie in the background.

What's that over there? Oh, just some trash.

Semipalmated Sandpiper on rehab pad.

We found another Semipalmated Plover nest on Mobil WZ. The Northern Pintail nest on WK Pad is confirmed as being abandoned. Joe mentioned that almost every time he ever discovered a pintail nest, the female abandoned it. I guess it is just the way of that species, but it is my job to find nests and sometimes there are consequences to our interference even though we are doing it for science. That being said, all the rest of our nests on the rehab pads are doing well. The geese on the site called Eileen West are very good about staying on the nest, even when we get a bit close.

Greater White-fronted Goose on its nest.

A little closer view of how firmly these geese stick on their nests.

Every day I walk out to the different sites on the tundra I encounter nests of other birds. Here are some pictures of different shorebird nests! (They all look essentially the same, but there are subtle differences.)

Red-necked Phalarope nest.

Red Phalarope nest.

Pectoral Sandpiper nest.

The caribou are starting to make their migration up here. We have been seeing small groups but the other day some of the larger groups have made it up now.

Caribou traffic jam.

I have a couple of more videos for you all. First up is a video of the Parasitic Jaeger dive-bombing me. Their nest is on the other side of the pad, which in the video is that strip of water, yet they are going after me even when I am that far away from them.

Then, a pair of Pacific Loons doing their defensive dives. It is too cute. I also apologize for the wind noise on both of these videos.