Bristol Bay / N. Aleutian Basin -- Seabirds & Shorebirds

1. Bristol Bay / N. Aleutian Basin -- Seabirds & Shorebirds Presented by Kathy Kuletz, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska

2. Contributors include (but not limited to) Rick Lanctot Bob Gill Shawn Stephensen Liz Labunski Rob Suryan Gary Drew Russ Oates USGS-BRD Migratory Bird Management (USFWS) Alaska Maritime Refuge

3. SHOREBIRDS -Up to 1/3 of the world population of Bar-tailed Godwits use Egegik Bay in fall -The only nesting area for a subspecies of Marbled Godwit is found in the Bristol Bay Lowlands

4. >300,000 shorebirds, primarily Dunlin, were counted during aerial surveys of Alaska Peninsula estuaries in 1999

5. MIGRATION CORRIDOR AND FILLING STATION FOR SHOREBIRDS

6. Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network sites in Alaska Hemispheric (500,000 birds or 30% of a population) International (100,000 birds or 10% of a population) Gill et al. unpubl.

7. >20,000 >100,000 >500,000 Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network

8. Bar-tailed Godwit Dunlin Breeding Wintering Spring/Fall Staging Paul Suchanek

9. Staging Range of Alaska’s Godwits Overlap Alaska Canada Bar-tailed Godwit Hudsonian and Bar-tailed Godwit Hudsonian Godwit Marbled and Bar-tailed Godwit All three Godwit species

10. SEABIRD COLONIES 30 Colonies within Lease Area with over 60,000 breeding seabirds 44 Colonies between Lease Area and Cape Newenham with over 900,000 breeding seabirds Predominantly Common Murre and Black-legged Kittiwakes

11. Selected colonies are monitored annually or every few years. Others are censused opportunistically

12. Breeding Chronology Productivity Population Trends Diet

13. Seabird Colonies - Regional comparisons (2003 sites)

14. Seabird colony catalogue Maintained by USFWS

15. 26 seabird species Most abundant: storm-petrels kittiwakes murres puffins gulls

16. Some of the most abundant breeding birds Common murres Tufted puffins

17. Many of ‘our’ seabirds don’t breed here – they just come to feed in the summer Albatrosses from Hawaii and Japan Shearwaters from New Zealand and S. America

18. Albatross wander into the Bristol Bay area, and particularly like the Aleutian passes for feeding. Short-tailed albatross Endangered Species Laysan albatross Photo: Paul Suchanek

19. Movements of Short-tailed Albatross Tracked with satellite telemetry, 2003 & 2006 (R. Suryan and others) Proportion of total time, by 5 degree blocks

20. Unimak Pass, & other Aleutian passes, attract millions of birds Short-tailed shearwaters, Unimak Pass, December 2005 Photo: Kevin Bell Including endangered species like Short-tailed albatross and other species of concern.

21. Transect coverage in the NPPSD Counting birds at sea – ship board surveys on ships of opportunity Data in N. Pacific Pelagic Seabird Database (NPPSD) Most transects (entered) are from OCSEAP, 1974 – 1984.

22. Spring Summer Fall Winter NPPSD Transect Coverage In N. Aleutian Basin Area

23. Abundant visitor in summer Rare endemic breeding on the Pribilof Islands

24. 2006 – N. Pacific Research Board funded USFWS to conduct at-sea seabird surveys, to update NPPSD Cooperative researchers - NOAA, AMNWR, Healy, GLOBEC Funded through 2007 season; USFWS will seek funding to continue

25. 2006 cruises Commonly observed at sea: Shearwater species Puffins & Auklets

26. 2006 cruises Species of concern – Loons (4 species observed) Murrelets (3 species, including Kittlitz’s murrelet)

27. Rick Lanctot Bob Gill Rob Suryan Shawn Stephensen Liz Labunski Gary Drew Russ Oates Thanks to: Photo credits: Lisa Sheffield Paul Suchanek Ian Jones Tamara Mills Liz Labunski Kathy Kuletz USFWS archives