Arctic Terrestrial Birds and Ecosystems

2013 Field Season Report and Update to Collaborators

Project Overview

Many populations of arctic-breeding birds are declining, particularly long-distance migrants who breed in the North and then migrate to wintering grounds in the Southern Hemisphere. Approximately two thirds of shorebird species are declining, and the status of many other arctic birds, especially small landbirds, remains poorly known. At the same time, conditions in the Arctic are changing rapidly. Ice, weather and habitat are profoundly influenced by long-term shifts in climate. Contaminants transported over long-distances could be affecting tundra-breeding birds or their food webs in unknown ways. Changes in farming practices in the United States have supported dramatic increases in populations of arctic geese, especially Snow Geese, and these geese are rapidly degrading coastal wetlands in the areas where they breed and stop over to refuel during migration.

Environment Canada seeks to understand the ways in which coastal tundra wetlands are changing, and how these changes influence bird populations. We study the factors that affect shorebird and landbird population variation and breeding success, and are trying to determine the degree to which changes in the North, including from abundant geese, could be responsible for population declines of these species.

Research Partnerships

Our research programs at East Bay, Coats Island and Iqaluit were a combined effort of many people and organisations. Principle investigators included Dr. Paul Smith, Jennie Rausch and Dr. Grant Gilchrist (Environment Canada), Dr. Oliver Love (University of Windsor), Dr. Stephen Brown (Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences), and Dr. Larry Niles (Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey). The project coordinators in 2013 were Mike Janssen and Christie Macdonald (Environment Canada). The projects are integrated into various international initiatives such as The Arctic Shorebird Demographics Network (ASDN), the Program for Regional and International Shorebird Monitoring (PRISM), and the Enhancing Migration Monitoring project.

2013 Research Highlights

Field work at East Bay, Coats Island, and Iqaluit involved banding and nest monitoring of shorebirds, landbirds, and gulls. Birds were banded with colour bands and tagged with geolocators to monitor changes in adult survival and to determine migration routes and wintering areas of these populations. Nests were found and monitored throughout the breeding season to track changes in the timing of breeding, monitor hatching success and determine the impacts of nest predators.

This information will be compared with data from previous years and across multiple research sites used to understand how and why populations may be declining, based on changing conditions on the Arctic breeding grounds and throughout the annual migration cycle.

Research Species Studied Nests Birds Birds Geo- Geo- Site Monitored Banded Resighted or locators locators Recaptured Recovered Deployed East Bay Shorebirds - Black- Mainland bellied plover, Red phalarope, Ruddy Turnstone, White- 87 27 22 7 13 rumped Sandpiper, etc. Seabirds - Sabine’s Gull and Arctic Tern East Bay Landbirds -Snow Island Bunting and Lapland 16 179 23 8 Longspur Coats Shorebirds – 35 35 Island Semipalmated Sandpiper Iqaluit Landbirds - Snow 25 25 Bunting

Re-initiating Field Work on Coats Island In June, collaborators from the Manomet Centre for Conservation Sciences operated a short field season at the Coats Island shorebird camp. The crew deployed 35 tracking devices (geolocators) on Semipalmated Sandpipers. These geolocators will be collected in 2014 and used to establish migratory routes and wintering locations for this declining population. Studies of breeding

2 shorebirds were previously carried out at this site (2004-2006), and work conducted in 2013 built on this baseline and prepared the site for a longer field season planned for July and August, 2014. Future field work will continue to contribute to the Arctic Shorebird Demographic Network, and new work as part of the Arctic Goose Joint Venture (AGJV) to look at the impacts of overabundant geese grazing on coastal tundra wetlands.

Red Knot Tracking and Habitat Mapping on Southampton Island The rufa Red Knot was recently listed as Endangered in Canada, and is under consideration for listing in the United States. In 2013, we carried out surveys to better understand the distribution and habitat use of this species across Southampton Island, in the core of its range. A crew led by Dr. Larry Niles searched for breeding rufa Red Knots across the island, and supporting helicopter- and ground-based surveys were carried out by Environment Canada in late June. Measurements of breeding habitat were recorded, and when combined with satellite imagery in 2014, these data will help to develop a predictive habitat model; describing the locations where this sparsely distributed species is expected to occur, and where surveys should be conducted in the future.

Recorded locations of rufa Red Knots on Southampton and Coats Islands from aerial radio-telemetry surveys (1999- 2006). Locations on this map were visited in 2013 for ground-based habitat assessment, and these data will contribute to a quantitative description of breeding habitat for this endangered species.

2010 2011

2012

Red Knot tagged at a migration stopover site in Delaware Bay was tracked with a geolocator 3 years in a row (2010-2013). Data show that this bird migrated north to breed on Southampton Island and overwintered in southern Florida.

A majority of the rufa Red Knots breeding in the Canadian Arctic stop over at Delaware Bay, United States, during migration. East Bay field crew leader, Lisa Pollock, travelled to Delaware Bay in late May 2013 to develop a backpack-style harness method for attaching a new type of tracking device to rufa Red Knots. New tags comprised of light-level geolocators along with a VHF-radio beacon would help to locate birds on the breeding grounds, and help improve geolocator recovery rates. Harness mounting allows for the safe deployment of larger tags, but is not suitable for all birds. We determined that the standard harness method was not suitable for Red Knots; their large

4 fluctuations in body mass during migration means that the harness could be at times either too tight or too loose to be comfortable. New harness designs or alternative attachment methods will continue to be investigated for safe attachment of these new tags, which will improve future tracking studies.

Nest Predator Monitoring Time lapse cameras were deployed to monitor shorebird nests at both Coats Island and at East Bay (5 cameras per site), and several predation events (primarily by Arctic Fox) were successfully recorded. We plan to deploy more cameras (15 cameras/site) in 2014 to monitor predation of a greater number of shorebird nests, and compare these results to those from various breeding locations across the Arctic.

PlotWatcher Pro time-lapse cameras recorded shorebird nest predation events at East Bay and Coats Island to determine the influence of nest predators on shorebird population declines.

Landbird Tracking and Breeding Studies This year, a two-week bird banding and tracking workshop was organized for the first time in Iqaluit. Volunteer Rick Ludkin, worked with Inuit Field Research Assistants and other community members to locate and monitor nests of breeding Snow Buntings, as well as capture, band and attach geolocator tracking tags to Snow Buntings near town. This program builds on our previous geolocator tracking studies of Snow Buntings from East Bay Island, and will be integrated with data on breeding phenology, philopatry, and inter-year survival from East Bay to better understand population trends for arctic-breeding landbirds. In addition to our annual landbird studies at East Bay, we plan to have a small field crew in Iqaluit again next year to recover geolocators, and continue to work with community members and workshop participants to further develop community-based landbird monitoring projects in Iqaluit in the future.

Future Directions

Effects of Overabundant Arctic Geese on Other Tundra Nesting Birds Beginning in 2014, two PhD students from Trent University (co-supervised by Erica Nol and Paul Smith) will investigate the mechanisms and magnitude of effects of overabundant geese on other tundra nesting birds, by carrying out field studies at three sites representing a gradient of goose effects (2 sites on Southampton Island, and 1 on Coats Island).

Radio Telemetry Array Working with the Canadian Wildlife Service and other collaborators, we plan to deploy new radio receivers at James Bay, Mingan Islands, Southampton and Coats Islands, to track migrating shorebirds at their stopover sites. Red Knots and Semipalmated Sandpipers will be equipped with small (<1g) radio tags during northward migration, on the breeding grounds and during southbound migration through James Bay. The breeding

6 area stations (Southampton and Coats Islands) will allow for precise knowledge of dates of arrival and departure of shorebirds, including for departing chicks late in the season. With the network of stations at stopover sites (James Bay, Mingan Islands, and others in the Bay of Fundy and eastern United States deployed by others), we hope to collect estimates of length of stay at stopover sites. This new information will help improve our current monitoring of bird populations at stopover sites and help identify the importance of these stopover habitats.

Nelson River Surveys Recent tracking data from geolocators suggests that a large proportion of rufa Red Knots (>50%) use the coast in the area of the Nelson River Estuary as a stopover site on both spring and fall migration. This area had not previously been identified as an important migratory stopover site for Red Knots and surveys of shorebirds in this area in spring have not been conducted. This is the same area that has also recently been discovered as an important spring migration stopover area for Snow Buntings breeding at East Bay Island, which have been tracked with geolocators since 2010. Working with Dr. Ann McKellar of the Canadian Wildlife Service, we plan to carry out a survey of this area in 2014. This survey will determine the specific areas and habitats within the Nelson River region which are important to shorebirds, and especially the rufa Red Knot. We will carry out a combination of aerial and ground-based surveys of coastal areas (up to 200 km) south of Nelson River, over the expected key spring staging period for shorebirds (early-mid June).

Recent Arctic Terrestrial Birds and Ecosystems Publications

McCloskey, M., S.R. Robinson, P.A. Smith and M.R. Forbes. 2013. Mercury concentrations in the eggs of four Canadian arctic-breeding shorebirds not predicted based on their population statuses. SpringerPlus 2:567.

Guindre-Parker, S., Baldo, S., Gilchrist, H.G., Macdonald, C.A., Harris, C.M. and O.P. Love. 2013. The oxidative costs of territory quality and offspring provisioning. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 26: 2558-2565

Guindre-Parker, S., Gilchrist, H.G., Baldo, S. and O.P. Love. 2013. Alula size signals male condition and predicts reproductive performance in an Arctic-breeding passerine. Journal of Avian Biology 44: 209-215

Bolduc, E., N. Casajus, P. Legagneux, L. McKinnon, H.G. Gilchrist, M. Leung, R.I.G. Morrison, D. Reid, P.A. Smith, C.M. Buddle, and J. Bêty. 2013. Terrestrial arthropod abundance and phenology in the Canadian Arctic: modeling resource availability for arctic-nesting insectivorous birds. Canadian Entomologist 145:1-16.

Andres, B.A., P.A. Smith, R.I.G. Morrison, C.L. Gratto-Trevor, S.C. Brown, and C.A. Friis. 2012. Population estimates of North American shorebirds, 2012. Wader Study Group Bulletin 119:178-194.

Macdonald, C.A., Fraser, K.C., Gilchrist, H.G., Kyser, T.K., Fox, J.W. & Love, O.P. 2012. Strong migratory connectivity in a declining arctic passerine. Animal Migration 1: 23-30.

Smith, P.A., I. Tulp, H. Schekkerman, H.G. Gilchrist, and M.R. Forbes. 2012. Shorebird incubation behaviour and its influence on the risk of nest predation. Animal Behaviour 84:835-842.

Andres, B.A., C. Gratto-Trevor, P. Hicklin, D. Mizrahi, R.I.G. Morrison, and P.A. Smith. 2012. Status of the Semipalmated Sandpiper. Waterbirds 35:146-148.

Smith, P.A., S.A. Dauncey, H.G. Gilchrist, and M.R. Forbes. 2012. The influence of weather on shorebird incubation. Pp. 89-104 in Video Surveillance of Nesting Birds, C. Ribic, F.R. Thompson III, and P.J. Pietz, eds. Studies in Avian Biology, 43. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Field Support

The research at East Bay and Coats Island is logistically complicated and labour intensive, requiring a relatively large, dedicated crew of students and biologists. Field crews in 2013 included Lisa Pollock, Eloise Girard, Sarah Jeswiet, Alannah Kataluk-Primeau, Nik Clyde, Frankie Jean-Gagnon, Maxime Rivest, Loreleï Guery, and Chris Baird. Local expertise was provided by Josiah Nakoolak and Jupi Angootealuk of Coral Harbour. Field work in Iqaluit was conducted by Rick Ludkin, David Hussell, Jeremy Hussell, Erica Dunn, Enooyaq Sudlovenick and Michael Gordon.

Research in Canada’s North is expensive and funding for this work is necessarily provided by a network of partnerships that includes, but is not limited to: Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, the Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment Canada’s Wildlife Research Division and Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division, University of Windsor, Inuit Field Research Assistant Program, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nunavut Research Institute, the Northern Scientific Training Program (NSTP), ArcticNet, NSERC, and the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP).

Contact

If you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact:

Christie Macdonald Paul Smith National Wildlife Research Center or National Wildlife Research Center Environment Canada Environment Canada Telephone: (613) 991-9846 Telephone: (613) 998-7362 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected]