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Historical and Present Breeding Season Distribution of Steller's Elders in Alaska

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Historical and Present Breeding Season Distribution of Steller's Elders in Alaska HISTORICAL AND PRESENT BREEDING SEASON DISTRIBUTION OF STELLER'S ELDERS IN ALASKA LORI T. QUAKENBUSH, Schoolof Fisheriesand Ocean Sciences,University of Alaska,Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7220 (currentaddress Alaska Department of Fish and Game, 1300 CollegeRoad, Fairbanks,Alaska 99701-1599) ROBERT H. DAY and BETTY A. ANDERSON, ABR, Inc.-- Environmental Re- search& Services,P.O. Box 80410, Fairbanks,Alaska 99708-0410 FRANK A. PITELKA, Universityof California,Museum of VertebrateZoology, Berkeley,California 94720-3160 BRIAN J. McCAFFERY,Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge, P.O. Box 346, Bethel, Alaska 99559 ABSTRACT: The Alaska breedingpopulation of the Steller'sEider (Polysticta stelleri) occursas two subpopulations,one on the Arctic coastalplain of northern Alaska,primarily near Barrow,and the other on the Yukon-KuskokwimDelta of western Alaska. In 1997, the Alaska breedingpopulation was listed under the EndangeredSpecies Act as threatenedbecause the nestingrange and population were thoughtto have decreasedsubstantially. The historical(pre-1970) and recent (1970-present)breeding distribution and abundanceof Steller'sEiders, however, are not well known. We compiledand evaluatedthe historicaland recent recordsof breeding-seasondistribution, confirmed nesting for northernand western Alaska, and foundthat the overallsizes of the breedingranges have not changedsubstantially; however, the frequencyof breeding has decreasedin both regions, except near Barrow.Causes of thisreduction in breedingfrequency of Steller'sEiders in Alaskaare unknown,but changesin predatorpopulations, lead poisoning,and interspecific nestingassociations with Snowy Owls (Nyctea scandiaca)and PomarineJaegers (Stercorariuspomarinus) may be contributingfactors. Three geographicallydistinct breeding populations of Steller'sEiders (Polystictastelleri) are recognized,two in arcticRussia and one in Alaska, with the greatestnumbers occurring in the easternRussian Arctic (Nyg&rd et al. 1995; Figure1). The Alaskabreeding population is the smallestof the three and comprisestwo geographicsubpopulations, one on the Arctic coastalplain of northernAlaska, the otheron the Yukon-KuskokwimDelta of westernAlaska. The Alaskabreeding population was listed as threatened underthe EndangeredSpecies Act in 1997 becauseit wasthought that the species'nesting range in Alaskahad decreasedsubstantially and that the overallnumber of birdsnesting in Alaskaprobably had decreasedsubstan- tially as well (U.S. Federal Register62:31748-31757). That decision, however,was basedon little information.In this paper, we summarizeand evaluate the historical(pre-1970) and recent (1970-present) breeding distributionand frequencyof Steller'sEiders in Alaskaand discusspossible reasonsfor changes. METHODS We compiledboth positive (presence) and negative (absence) observations on the breeding-seasondistribution and breeding frequency of Steller'sEider in Alaska from publishedand unpublishedliterature, museum records, WesternBirds 33:99-120, 2002 99 BREEDING SEASON DISTRIBUTION OF STELLER'S ELDERS IN ALASKA RUSSIA Peninsula - •o'•' •ø•'g' Novaya Zemlya AlaskaBreeding World Distribution Pa•ficPopulation AtlanticPopulation CurrenlBreeding Distribut•on CurrentWintering Distribu•on Figure1 The currentbreeding and winteringranges of Steller'sEider. The bar at the mouth of the Khatanga River in Russiamarks the boundarybetween Pacific and Atlantic populations. personal communications,and field notes (also see Boarman and Coe 2000). We useddaily or seasonalbird listswhen they existedbecause study reportsdid not alwaysreport on nonlocalspecies. Positive records included Steller'sEiders seen during the breedingseason (May-September) and only on land or freshwater: known migrantsand moltingconcentrations were excluded.Negative records included visits to a specificlocation within the historicalrange of Steller'sEider. during the breedingseason, in whichno Steller'sEiders or evidenceof nestingwere observed.Because Quakenbush and Suydam(1999) found that Steller'sEiders did not nest annuallynear Barrowin the 1990s, despitebeing present, we madea distinctionbetween sightings("occurrence") and evidenceof nesting("breeding"). We did not includeobservations from aerial surveysbecause these surveys do not yield evidencefor nesting.but we did summarizethe distributionof aerial-survey observationsto compare them with those made from the ground. To comparethe past and presentdata setsfor possibledeclines in either the occurrenceor breedingfrequency of Steller'sEiders, we dividedthe recordsinto historical(pre-1970) and recent (1970-present). We chose 100 BREEDING SEASON DISTRIBUTION OF STELLER'S ELDERS IN ALASKA 1970 as the divisionbetween periods because of the increasein multiyear ornithologicalstudies that beganon the Arctic coastalplain in conjunction with oilfielddevelopment and studiesin the Yukon-KuskokwimDelta that expandedand intensifiedabout that time. We tabulatednumbers of site-yearsof occurrenceand breedingduring each period. A site-yearreflects data for one year at a particularlocation (site)during the breedingseason. Observations ranged from single-daysite visitsto multi-monthstudies. Potential problems exist because of the greater effort in a longer-termstudy and becausefew siteshave been visited with equaleffort in both periods.To reducethe effectsof this possiblebias, we comparedpooled data from all siteswith data from a subsetof sitesthat had beenvisited in both periods. A compilationof site data by period allowsa qualitativeestimate of distributionand breedingfrequency of Steller'sEiders in Alaska.Because of the qualitativenature of thesedata, thesefrequencies are not estimatesof absolutechange but revealtrends of occurrenceand breeding. RESULTS Northern Alaska Historicaldata suggest that Steller'sEiders formerly occurred across much of the Arctic coastalplain [Anderson1913, Brooks1915, Bailey 1925, 1948, Bent 1925, Bee 1958, Fiscus1952 in Gabrielsonand Lincoln 1959, Gill et al. 1985, Quakenbushand Cochrane1993; egg collectionsin the WesternFoundation of VertebrateZoology, Camarillo, California (WFVZ), andDenver Museum of NaturalHistory, Denver, Colorado (DMNH; Figure 2)]. They alsowere recordedin northwesternCanada as far east as Cape Bathurst,Northwest Territories, and in four of five pre-1970 site-years betweenKaktovik and Cape Bathurst, Northwest Territories, suggesting that the speciesformerly occurred there regularly(Anderson 1913, Brooks 1915, Dixon 1943). Althoughthe speciesapparently ranged widely over the Arctic coastal plain and into northwesternCanada, unequivocalhistorical evidence of nestingis availableonly from Wainwright to Cape Halkettin Alaska(Bailey 1925, 1948, Stone1900 in Gabrielsonand Lincoln 1959, Bee 1958; egg collectionsin WFVZ, DMNH, and Museumof VertebrateZoology, Univer- siN of California,Berkeley; Figure 2). Verbalaccounts of nestinginclude locationsas far eastas the ColvilleRiver Delta (P. Sovalik in Myres1958) and CollinsonPoint near Kaktovik (W. Patkotak in Quakenbushand Cochrane 1993), but there are no definitivehistorical records of nestingeast of Cape Halkett.Regardless of the easternlimit of nesting,the speciesoccurred and nestedwith greatestfrequency in the vicinity(within 20 km) of Barrow (Myres1958, Gabrielsonand Lincoln 1959, Pitelka1974, Quakenbushand Suydam1999)and, secondarily,elsewhere within the Arcticcoastal plain at leastas far eastas Cape Halkett (Figure2). Recentoccurrence extends from Wainwrightto the SagavanirktokRiver, with one recordfrom HerschelIsland, Yukon Territory,Canada (Talarico and Mossop1986); however,there are no recent sightingsbetween the SagavanirktokRiver and the Alaska-Canadaborder (Figure 3). In addition, 101 BREEDING SEASON DISTRIBUTION OF STELLER'S ELDERS IN ALASKA 102 BREEDING SEASON DISTRIBUTION OF STELLER'S EIDERS IN ALASKA 103 BREEDING SEASON DISTRIBUTION OF STELLER'S ELDERS IN ALASKA aerial surveysflown annuallybetween 1989 and 1999 have accumulated sightingsof 436 Steller'sEiders at 180 locationson the Arcticcoastal plain (Larned et al. 1993, Brackneyand King 1993, 1994, Balogh and Larned 1994, Larnedand Balogh1994, King and Brackney1995, King and Dau 1997). These surveysfound that Steller'sEiders were widely distributed betweenPoint Lay and the SagavanirktokRiver, with only three sightings betweenthe Colvilleand Sagavanirktokrivers and the highestdensities near Barrow. An aerial surveyflown near Barrow, AdmiraltyBay, and Meade River in 1999 and 2000 also found Steller's Eiders to be most common near Barrow (Ritchieand King 2001). Recentunequivocal nesting records range from Barrowto inlandon the ColvilleRiver (Figure3), with the Barrow area still being the center of abundanceand primary nestinglocation in northern Alaska. There is no unequivocalevidence of recent nestingeast of the ColvilleRiver, despite extensivefieldwork in this region. M. M. Johnson(Univ. of Calif., Davis, pers. comm.) saw a flight-capablebrood on Lake Colleen, near the SagavanirktokRiver, and K. Russell[U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service (USFWS), Fairbanks,pers. comm.]saw a flight-capablebrood on ElusiveLake in the BrooksRange; however, these birds may have flownconsiderable distances from their breedingsites. Occurrenceand breeding status are availablefrom the Arcticcoastal plain for 106 historicaland 151 recentsite-years. Steller's Eiders were recorded during75% of historicalsite-years but only 36% of recentsite-years (Figure 4). Breedingfrequency, based on yearsof occurrence,was 49% of historical site-yearsbut 33% of recent ones (Figure 5). Fourteen sites between
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