Second North American Sea Duck Conference 2005
One hundred and five Abstracts of the Second North American Sea Duck Conference presented
in Annapolis Maryland 7-11 November, 2005
One hundred and five Abstracts of the Second North American Sea Duck Conference presented
in Annapolis Maryland 7-11 November, 2005
One hundred and eighteen Abstracts of the First North American Sea Duck Workshop and Conference
presented in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada 6-10 November, 2002
There is a dearth of information about bird use of certain areas of Bristol Bay during winter. This survey will fill in gaps of our knowledge and provide baseline winter abundance and distribution data for eastern Bristol Bay and the southern extent of sea ice, which varies annually. The area is subject to potential threats from offshore oil and gas development and from mining (i.e., Pebble mine). The aerial survey will be done using USFWS Kodiak fixed-wing aircraft and pilots and will test the proposed survey methodology..
Generally, black scoters breed near shallow tundra lakes in Alaska, or tundra and taiga (boreal forest) lakes in eastern Canada. They winter in near-shore marine and estuarine areas, and to a lesser extent in the Great Lakes.
As with other sea ducks, black scoters are believed to reach sexual maturity when they are two or three years old.The diet of black scoters at sea is predominantly mollusks (e.g., mussels and clams), but also crustaceans (e.g., snails, periwinkles), limpets, barnacles, and vegetation.
Sea Duck Joint Venture. 2011. Sea Duck Joint Venture Implementation Plan for April 2011 through March 2014. Report of the Sea Duck Joint Venture. Available at U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska, and Environment Canada, Sackville, New Brunswick. Also available at seaduckjv.org . 48 pp.
OBJECTIVE
This study is a large scale, multi-year, collaborative project that will use satellite telemetry to document annual migration patterns and habitat use. Driven by a lack of knowledge on sea duck distribution, migration patterns, and seasonal habitats used, the Sea Duck Joint Venture (SDJV) partnership has launched a large-scale satellite telemetry study of sea ducks in the Atlantic Flyway. From 2009 to 2013, about 300 transmitters will be deployed in four species: Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, and Long-tailed Duck - all species of high conservation concern.
Numbers of scoters (black, surf, and white-winged) and long-tailed ducks wintering in the Maritime provinces of Canada and the Chesapeake Bay (MD and VA, USA) have noticeably declined in recent years. Common goldeneye populations have also declined, but bufflehead populations have increased in numbers.
More than half of North American sea duck populations have apparently declined over the past 2-3 decades, although reasons for declines are unknown. Population delineation (i.e., the links among breeding, molting, wintering, and staging areas) is critical information needed to design and interpret monitoring surveys, to better understand population ecology and population dynamics, and determine limiting factors and potential strategies to improve conservation status of sea ducks.
The Atlantic Seaduck Project is being conducted to learn more about the breeding and molting areas of seaducks in northern Canada and more about the feeding ecology of seaducks on wintering areas, especially Chesapeake Bay. Satellite telemetry is being used to track surf scoters wintering in Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, and black scoters on migrational staging areas in New Brunswick, Canada, to breeding and molting areas in northern Canada
Population delineation and wintering ecology of Surf Scoters have been studied in detail through much of their range. A conspicuous gap exists for Southeast Alaska, which is near the northern end of their winter distribution.