Arctic Update!

So obviously a lot has been going on in the last three, almost four weeks of June. Where to start? I guess a little from the beginning. I was not intending to come back this year, it was a fluke that someone quit and I was asked if I wanted to come back, and made the decision to do just that. And with all of the other things happening in my life, it was a good fit. So here I am.

Musk Ox

It has been quite a different year so far. First off, the Kuparuk bridge was temporarily out again this year, but not for as long as last year. So we have been out there to do our surveys regularly without any problems. Well, except the other day there was a bear in the area so we did not do surveys that day. Speaking of bears! We have pretty regularly seen bears this year. Always from pretty far away, unfortunately no good picture opportunities. Yesterday, we saw a sow and cub near a group of 18 musk oxen with a few calves.

Up until a few days ago, we have been seeing a lot more Pomarine Jaegers. They typically only stick around if it is a good lemming year, since they are fairly dependent on them as a food source. I even found a Pom nest! We haven't checked it in awhile, but the other crew said they were not around when they were out by it a couple of days ago. I think we will be out that way tomorrow, so I can check on it then. I wouldn't be surprised if they have just abandoned it since we have seen less Poms and not many Snowy Owls (another species that sticks around for the lemmings) or lemmings for that matter.

Probably the only decent pic I will get of a Pom.

Pomarine Jaeger nest

The rehab pads have been fairly active. Not so much for birds on them, as much as birds nesting on them. We have 6 different species nesting on 5 of the 10 different sites. Two of the species, a Lapland Longspur and a Cackling Goose are on the edge of the pad, but do count. Of course we have our typical Semipalmated Plover nests, but we also have a Greater Scaup nest, two King Eider nests and a Short-eared Owl nest. The owl nest since yesterday has 7 eggs. 7 EGGS! I doubt they will all hatch and fledge, but we are hopeful a few will make it and we can see some cute little owlets.

Short-eared Owl nest

Lapland Longspur nest

Semipalmated Plover nest

I am currently taking a class through Coursera on Animal Behavior, or Behaviour, as the Aussies say. One of the class assignments is to have a field journal blog on a species. So I chose to do it on the Parasitic Jaeger pairs that are nesting near one of our rehab pads and a pair of long-term monitoring plots. I have fallen in love with them, and feel that I can ask some interesting questions, that could even turn into a future project if I find a way to pursue it. You can find that blog at this link.

Parasitic Jaeger nest

Dark-morph Parasitic Jaeger

The artificial nest project has not fared well this year. The Haul road transect was alright the first time we checked it, we lost a little over half the nests, but it wasn't so bad. Endicott however, failed miserably. We had a total of 8 nests survive the first check, out of 60. We had our fourth check today, and we have now completely lost Endicott. The first check we had an Arctic Fox predation and a Pomarine Jaeger predation caught on camera. The second check we had three camera nests get eaten by, likely a single pair of Parasitic Jaegers. I hypothesize this pair was in the same territory last year and have cued in our cameras as a source of an easy meal, and they just cleaned up this year. I guess we will see what happens with our second trial when we get that set-up. But, the failure of these nests have given me some free time to write today, and watch the U.S. World Cup match! Go USA!

A tasty nest, just for us? Don't mind if we do!

Yellow-billed Loons and a Discussion about Red Foxes

Bryce, the crew leader for the long-term monitoring crew, also has a blog. You can look at it here. He is an excellent birder, a wonderful artist (seriously his art is amazing!) and all around fun gent. His blog also has many more followers than mine; but it has been very beneficial for us! He met a fellow birder up here through his blog. She works for the airport to observe and deter animals from coming on to the runway. The rest of us met her and formed fast friendships in such a remote location. Interestingly, she discovered some Yellow-billed Loons down the Haul Road. So we all took a trip to discover them for ourselves. We went out later at night for the mid-summer, midnight lighting. Unfortunately there were clouds blocking the sun but the experience made the night very magical. Once we got to the pond the loons were seen in just a few days before, we all easily spotted them. They never got too close, and we were all destroyed by mosquitoes but it was well worth it. Especially when another loon (probably a Pacific) flew over and the two started "talking". I wish I had captured their calls on video, it was such an amazing sound. Bryce was able to lay in some grass at the edge of the pond and the loons floated close for him to get some video and pictures. You can view the video on his blog, link here again if you missed it (i.e. seriously check it out for his art and prose alone!). In the meantime, here are my not as good pictures. 

Yellow-billed Loons on an Arctic summer night.

Beautiful birds.

We often talk about how climate change is affecting nesting birds in the Arctic. In fact, it is one of the primary reasons Wildlife Conservation Society started their research here almost 11 years ago. However, nesting birds are also affected by the increased number of predators, especially in the oilfields. In fact, many predators are also affected by climate change and are able to travel further north in search of prey. Other studies have shown that there are not as many predators in the high Arctic as there are at lower latitudes. But we also have to factor in how human infrastructure draws in predators that don't really belong. Both Common Ravens and Red Foxes are smart and opportunistic, and both are drawn to the oilfields for nesting/denning and ease of finding food. Red Fox are also responsible for out-competing as well as preying on the Arctic Fox. Red Fox can easily take down adult geese, but with all the babies running around there is even easier prey to catch. On W-Pad the other day, one of the pad operators told us there was a family of Red Foxes underneath the main building on the pad. Once we left the pad for the day we saw a fox carrying a gosling only to discover it actually had two goslings. At one point it dropped its catch and pounced on something else in the grass. As the pictures show, it caught itself a little lemming snack; and then picked up its meal to carry it back to the den and its kits. I think BP has other conservation groups that monitor ravens and foxes here, but there is not a management plan other than observing them. Foxes got to eat too, but to the detriment of nesting birds. It's a double whammy for the bird species that breed in the Arctic. 

Carrying off catch.

Stopping for a snack.

Chowing down.

"Time to take these back to my babies."

"They sure will enjoy these."

End of Artificial Nest Trial 1, Reconyx Images

Yesterday and today saw the end of our first trial of artificial nests. Neither did very well in the long run, but both provided some interesting and candid shots of Arctic wildlife.

Bug-eyed caribou spots the camera.

Up close and personal.

Parasitic Jaeger struts by camera, but leaves nest alone.

Hello there!

Caribou butt.

Calf notices camera.

Calf nursing. Mom says, "What you lookin' at?"

Northern Harrier before it eats our nest.

Another view of the Harrier.

Fox checks out nest after Harrier eats it. Clearly bored.

Arctic ground squirrel says, "'Sup?"

Buff-breasted Sandpiper walks by nest. (It's on the left)

Semipalmated sandpiper checks it out too!

Red fox discovers camera, but does not eat nest.

I wanted to stage a predation of one of our nests since it was the end of the trial and we had to take and dispose of the eggs. Here are some pictures the camera took!

Fieldus biologistus discovers nest.

Checks to make sure no one is looking.

Takes eggs for science!

This camera was first set up on the 9th of June and the nest survived the whole season. It captured some wildlife, but also captured a time-lapse of sort of the changing season.

First day nest was set up.

Purple saxifrage starting to bloom.

Arctic dryad blooming.

Purple saxifrage and Arctic dryad in full bloom!

Considering we have not seen many lemmings this year may provide some explanation as to why our nests have faired so poorly. It seems unlikely that we would have caught a Northern Harrier depredating a nest if it had ample supply of lemmings to hunt. It would also affect many other mammalian and avian predators up here and drive them to seek out other prey items, including our artificial nests.

Unfortunately, we have yet to receive our duck eggs for the second trial, and time is running out. We were due to set it up tomorrow the 30th, but without them we have pushed it back a day. I am reluctant to push it back more than the one day, as we have to let the trial go for 20 days, and that would mean we would not finish until close to when we are supposed to be leaving the slope. I guess we will see tomorrow. We may be instructed to complete the trials without the duck eggs, or not at all. We shall see. In the meantime, MUFFINS!

Lapland Longspur chicks!

Another Year, Another Jaeger

So many updates for you all. First of all, the artificial nest project is doing fairly well, we don't have many surviving nests but it is a bit indicative of higher predation rates closer to infrastructure. Not the final analysis of course, just my observation from the last few times we have checked our nests. I have also observed that the predators appear to be very smart. They continually avoid preying on our camera nests so we do not capture them on "film." On the Haul Road transect we have a camera on two nests that are 680m apart and a nest without a camera in-between. Of course the nest in-between was depredated and the nests with cameras were fine.

Nests are being found on our rehab pads! Aside from the Semipalmated Plover and the goose nest I spoke of last, there have been a few other plover nests, and a Northern Pintail nest! Two eggs but when I checked it today, there were still only two eggs, one was cold and the female wasn't around. So I think she abandoned it. =(

Two lovely, but now lonely eggs. =(

The Parasitic Jaeger pair that nested by the rehab pad Kup 30 are back and have a nest again. I know that corvids have an ability to recognize faces, and I think that Jaegers may also. The pair were WAY more aggressive defending their nest against me this year than last. In fact, one of them even knocked my hat off when it was dive-bombing me as they do. Jie got some good video of it and, for those that are on Facebook, you can look at it there! There is also a video of me running towards the nest. A technique I've perfected to find nests: back off from the bird when they are behaving "nesty", spot where the bird "hunkers" down on the nest, keep your eye on the prize and just go for it!

This video is of a Red Phalarope, doing it's cute little Phalarope dance. I think there should be a verb based on this. Like, "Hey man, that dude has some mad moves. He's totally phalaroping!" Just a thought. Image quality on the video isn't great but you get the idea. Red-necked Phalaropes also do this little dance, and imagine 20 of them doing it around a Spectacled Eider to the music you would hear at a carnival or circus. Do it, you will be amused.

I also found an American Golden-Plover nest near the rehab pad Mob Kup Strip. The pictures I have of the chicks from last year were a pair that nested near the same site. They nest so out in the open, but in such pretty spots. Just look at that beautiful purple mountain saxifrage growing behind it! And how the eggs blend in so well with the vegetation! Beautiful!

Isn't it just the prettiest nest you ever did see?

Other fun pictures for today's post:

This is what it looks like to work on the tundra as an Arctic Ninja. It was cold and windy today, but really, I just forgot to put on sunscreen before going out and wanted to protect my skin.

Male Long-tailed duck in flight. May be a bit blurry, but I think it is neat. I now have to really work on my focusing with my lens because my camera's view-finder is all wonky from the little swim it took earlier this season. =(

Road Open!

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted. We set out our artificial nests on the Haul road and the road to Endicott. Both days were long and exhausting but it was satisfying to have it all done. We have already checked the Haul road nests once and have about half of both duck and shorebird nests surviving so far. I lost one of my nests because I built it fairly close to the river and it was flooded in just a few days time. =(

Artificial shorebird nest.

This is why you don't build a nest by a river full of ice.

Tomorrow we will be checking our artificial nests on the road to Endicott. Monitoring the nests doesn't take quite as long, but it is a little more tiring since we are hiking a lot more. As well as moving cameras off nests that are depredated and setting them up on different nests. 

I mentioned previously that we have been unable to access the majority of our sites because the river took out part of the bridge across. Well, it also had large ice blocks on it. Photos are courtesy of Jie, since I did not have my camera and my phone died the day we went to check it out.

I wonder why...

Joe and I checking out the ice.

But as the title of this post says, it is now open! We were able to make it out to those sites today and get all of our first surveys done. One site is still inaccessible because the road it's on is still washed out, but I am not too concerned about getting there anytime soon. It was one of the sites we added later in the season and Erica and I did all of the surveys in late June and early July, so it should be alright.

Last year Mobil WZ quickly became one of my favorite sites because there was so much activity on it. It was also the site we found four Semipalmated Plover nests on. Today, it did not disappoint. It had so much bird activity! We aren't supposed to search for nests on the sites until the second survey, but I inadvertently found a plover nest already! Three eggs, not even a full clutch yet! Jie also found a Greater White-fronted Goose nest on a different site. The first non-plover nest found on a rehab pad, for the whole study!

First Semipalmated Plover nest!

I also recently remembered I forgot to share this picture of a black blob, I mean Bearded Seal! A SEAL! SEAL! Hooray! It was out on the ice by Endicott but the ice has receded further north now, so we probably won't get to see anymore... =(

Like the wolves, you just got to trust me, it is a seal.

All in all, it has been looking up here. We have been able to get work done, the weather is fantastic (mid 50s and reported 60s on Friday!) and the flowers have begun to bloom as the tundra turns green and awakens.  

Beautiful day in the Arctic!