Stephen Brown's Arctic Blog


There was much more drifting arctic ice near the coast that in the past few years, even though the total amount of ice in the arctic continues to decline.  We take care to avoid all the drifting ice in our small rubber boat!

I am happy to report that we are safely back to Kaktovik, the small town on the Beaufort Sea where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintains a bunkhouse we use as a staging point for our coastal survey.   We successfully completed our survey along all 138 miles of the Arctic Refuge coastline! It is always a relief to finish the survey safely, since the weather and boating conditions can be extremely challenging.  

Since my last podcast, we have finished the last two river Deltas, including the Jago, which is one of the largest. At most of the river deltas, the mudflats were largely underwater due to the very high sea levels caused by wind driven tides. At the Jago, where the mudflat is very wide, there was still a large area of mudflat exposed, and the birds had congregated there in even larger numbers than usual. We saw thousands of Semipalmated Sandpipers, and hundreds of birds of many other species, including Dunlin, Pectoral Sandpipers, and Stilt Sandpipers. There were also quite a few rarer species, including White-rumped Sandpipers, Western Sandpipiers, Sanderling, Black-bellied Plovers, and American Golden-Plovers. It was a delight to see so many birds finding a reliable source of food as they prepare for their epic southward migrations. This adds evidence to what our data had showed in the past several years, that a few of the large river deltas like the Jago are extremely important staging areas. We will be working hard in the coming months to analyze all of the data from the survey, and are hoping to publish the first paper ever to compare survey results from the entire coastline over multiple years, which will help determine which are the most important areas to conserve for staging shorebirds.

As we spend the next several days scraping off the river delta mud, cleaning and packing up our gear, and preparing for our own long trip southwards, our thoughts are already looking ahead to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Shiloh Schulte, who leads our conservation effort on American Oystercatchers, has also been leading the development of an ambitious proposal to conduct surveys on the impacts of the spill on the many different shorebird species that will soon be arriving in the Gulf. We expect this effort will take much of the time of our shorebird science crew over the next several months, as we work to help measure the impacts of the spill on migrating birds. 

We are extremely grateful to all of our supporters, whose generosity makes this work possible. Every time we use a piece of safety gear or survey equipment, we appreciate so much how your generosity makes it possible for us to work here. Thank you again for all your support, which has made this successful season in the Arctic possible!

Posted by Stephen Brown  Mon, August 16, 2010  Permalink
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Posted by Stephen Brown  Thu, August 5, 2010  Permalink
Red-necked Phalarope female Swimming

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Semipalmated Sandpiper

 

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Posted by Stephen Brown  Sun, August 1, 2010  Permalink

Here we are departing for the first leg of our survey. Trevor tagged along on this ride, since he was headed to the Canning River camp to train staff and help with mist netting shorebirds. It was a lovely day for a long boatride on the arctic ocean!

 

This is the view across Camden Bay, on the way to the Canning River, looking south over the arrctic ocean with some ice still remaining, toward the Brooks Range.


We successfully wrapped up the first half of our survey very late last night! It was a busy week. We left Kaktovik heading for the Canning River where we had planned to start, and took Trevor along for the ride as well since he was headed to the seasonal camp there. Trevor is helping to train the crew in mist netting and banding techniques, and is spending some time working there with them this week. It was the best crossing I have ever had, a lovely flat calm day with a view of the Brooks Range to the south. We passed many icebergs still floating in the ocean, which we hadn't seen for several years. Even though there has been more ice in this area, the reports still show that Arctic-wide it has been a record low ice season, even more evidence of how variable things are in the Arctic. After completing our survey at the far eastern edge of the coastal plain, on the Staines and the Canning Rivers, we started working our way back to the west. We had two long days of surveying on the Katakturuk, Saddlerochit, Hulahula, and Okpilak Rivers. The second survey day ended just past midnight last night. We often push very hard when the weather is good, since getting between the survey sites is the biggest challenge when working on the Arctic Ocean in a small inflatable boat. We had just a few hours at the bunkhouse in Kaktovik, to unload the boat, dry and repack the gear, restock our food supplies, send this update and the accompanying photos, and grab a few hours of sleep. Now we are heading out to go to the far eastern edge of the Refuge, on the Canadian border, to resume the survey. I will send another podcast from the Canadian border when we arrive there!

 

At the start of our first survey, on
the Canning River at the easternmost edge of the Arcitc Refuge coastal plain, we were greeted by this group of caribou out resting on the mudflats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are the caribou from up close, they were quite curious to see who was visiting their river delta!




 







This is how we dress for our long crossings on the arctic ocean, and even with all those layers it still gets bone-chilling by the time we arrive.
 

 











This is a typical campsite on the survey, where we carry our gear ashore and camp along the edge of the ocean. Our second and third day of surveying were in the rain, so crawling into your tent is a welcome relief at the end of a long day!
 











Here is the view from our Canning River camp, looking across the mudflat we will survey for staging shorebirds, with the arctic ice in the distance. Despite abundant ice in this area this year, June was a record low for ice extent across the entire arctic.

 

Posted by Stephen Brown  Sat, July 31, 2010  Permalink
Brroks Range
Brooks Range
Heading north from Fairbanks we will cross the Brooks Range before arriving on the coastal plain

After a few short weeks at Manomet headquarters catching up with all of the paperwork it takes to run a research program, I'm heading north again back to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  From late July to early August, we will be surveying the entire coastline of the Refuge as part of our effort to find the most important places for staging shorebirds as they prepare for their southbound migrations.  This is critical given ongoing plans to develop oil and natural gas resources in the Beaufort Sea.  And this year, as the disaster in the Gulf has shown us, being prepared and knowing what areas are most important to wildlife seems even more critical as we attempt to take stock of the damage in the Gulf.  Our American Oystercatcher Initiative Coordinator, Shiloh Schulte, was scheduled to come north with us to help with the work in the Arctic, but just like many wildlife biologists around the country who have been called into service in the Gulf, Shiloh will instead will be working hard on damage assessment efforts related to Oystercatchers and other migrating shorebirds.  This counterpoint, struggling to respond to an existing disastrous spill while also working in areas that could be threatened by a similar disaster, makes it even clearer why we need to know what areas are critical to shorebirds along the Arctic coastline, where oil exploration is already underway as well.  I will be sending podcasts from the field as we work our way along the coastline, and keep you up to date with our progress.
 

Coastal Caribou 
In the late summer, the caribou come out to the coast in large numbers to escape the huge numbers of mosquitoes inland







Loading Boat 
We travel between survey sites in our trusty rubber boat, and carry all our gear ashore every night to camp











RNPH Shoreline
Red-necked Phalaropes like to feed in the shallow water just inside of the barrier islands





 







Wetland Survey 
We survey many different habitats along the coast, like this salt-marsh near the Jago River delta, which shorebirds use to feed










SESA and REPH 
Semipalmated Sandpipers and Red-necked Phalaropes are two of the most common species of juvenile shorebirds we find along the coast, getting ready for their southbound migrations
Posted by Stephen Brown  Mon, July 26, 2010  Permalink

One of the many tundra ponds near our study area on the Canning River, where shorebirds, especially phalaropes, love to feed.  

3 July 2010 – Manomet Headquarters

Now that we have finished our first project this summer in Alaska, and all of Manomet’s staff is safely home, we are taking some time over the holiday weekend to reflect on the project and our time on the North Slope.  We are now back in New England, readjusting from 24 hours of daylight and the 4 hour time difference.  Transitioning from the vast arctic wilderness to the 4th of July crush of humanity on Cape Cod is a powerful contrast, and an unusual opportunity to reflect on our work and the balance between nature and humans as a whole. 
 
For the first time, we will have detailed scientific knowledge about shorebird breeding success from across the entire Arctic.  In the past, we did our best to piece together a picture of how successful the breeding season was from scattered reports of several disjunct efforts by other groups.  We were always struck by how different things could be in different areas, a reminder of just how vast the Arctic really is.  Now, thanks to the Network, we know that the same protocols were in place at nine sites spanning the Arctic, and the results will give us our clearest understanding ever of how the birds did this year, and how the environment varied across the Arctic.  While we were having an unusually productive year on the Canning River, the camp at Barrow reported snow cover lasting longer than ever, and sparse breeding as the season developed.  Only by combining all of our results can we understand how successful the breeding season was.  And over the next few years, the same sites will give us the best glimpse ever into the survival of these birds as they carry out their annual migrations between the ends of the earth.   
 
Our deeply felt concern over the potential for extensive global climate change motivates this collaborative demographic study.  For the first time we will be able to take stock of the effects of climate change on shorebirds and the habitats upon which they depend across the entire expanse of the North American Arctic.  Individually there is very little that any one of us can do, but working together we hope to put together enough of the puzzle pieces to identify proactive strategies for the federal and state agencies entrusted with managing these wild lands and their diverse resources.  The need to be proactive rather than reactive has never been more poignantly clear than now, watching the environmental catastrophe continuing to unfold in the Gulf of Mexico, as pressures for offshore drilling continue in the Arctic.  
 
After a few short weeks of recovery and new preparations, we will be back at work in the Arctic.  I will return soon to complete our coastal survey, where we are looking for key shorebird staging areas along the Arctic Refuge coastline.  Trevor and Shiloh will be joining the effort this year, working alongside the crew from the USFWS to measure food abundance for the birds and conduct banding studies, and we will be reporting live from the Arctic again soon!

Leaving the Arctic Refuge by air, our last glimpse of the Brooks Range and the coastal plain.

 

Posted by Stephen Brown  Tue, July 6, 2010  Permalink