James W. Bee

“ An hour later we examined the off-shore and found the dead female among the sedges. By this time the male had abandoned its mate and was observed feeding in an adjacent lake. Arctic loons on several adjacent lakes could be heard. The male that had been deprived of its mate, did not respond.
The female weighed 1200 grams. The largest ovum was eight mm in diameter; others were smaller and the smallest were in clusters. On leaving the nest we placed mosses and grasses over it to protect the single egg from the parasitic jaegers. ”

“ An adult male shot on July 21, weighed 460 grams.
On alluvial outwash at the southwest end of Lake Schrader (July 27, 1952) a male and female parasitic jaeger defended their territory by diving at us. Periodically both birds alighted approximately 60 feet away and each pretended to have a crippled wing for approximately a minute. The female acted as if herding the young but was not. On each of our daily inspections an adult defended the area. In a period of four days the area defended was shifted approximately 1⁄5 of a mile south in the marsh area adjacent to the lake. ”

“ Along a deeply eroded western outlet of Wahoo Lake there was an unusual concentration of fecal droppings, spaced approximately every two or three feet. This sheltered place offered protection from cold and winds of winter. Adults were associated with willows along creeks and on adjoining sidehills where willows gave way to open tundra. One family left the willows and the female flew back and forth behind the young as she herded them. The largest adult male seen here was shot on July 11. It was 365 mm in total length, weighed 460 grams, and had testes 7 mm long. ”

“ Other Lapland longspurs observed in the same period at these same localities averaged one per 400 feet of walking on my part. The greatest number of longspurs trapped was at Kaolak on July 24, 1951; 100 traps yielded 6 longspurs. The greatest number observed—one per 100 feet—was at Topagaruk on July 5, 1951. Although the longspur on the Arctic Slope is the most common bird, it is absent from some areas there. On each of two trips (July 29-30) across one mile of upland plateau between Barrier Lake and Teshekpuk Lake, we did not see longspurs. This plateau is a travel lane maintained by caribou. ”

“ These birds seemed to be the only terns nesting on this large lake. As food was plentiful, available nesting sites may have governed the size of the tern population.
Six pairs of Arctic terns, constituting less than one per cent of the avian population in the area, were nesting on small islands of the larger lakes at Topagaruk in the period July 5-10, 1951. On July 8, one nest held both eggs and young; other nests held either eggs or young. These birds and the Sabine's gulls showed no hostility to one another. On July 9, three miles north of camp 13 terns were among sedges in standing water. ”

“ The nest, approximately 60 cm in diameter, of sedges, grasses and an assortment of plant debris, was on a mound of soil 23 cm above, and 40 cm from, the open water. The cup of the nest measured 37 mm in depth. The site of the nest (southeast corner of the lake) was near the area supporting the most lake trout (Cristivomer namaycush) . Between open water of the lake and the shore, 20 feet of sedges and grasses deterred wolves (Canis lupus) , red foxes (Vulpes fulva) , and caribou (Rangifer arcticus) from molesting the nest; tracks of these mammals were numerous on contiguous shore areas. ”

“ At Kaolak (July 21-27, 1951) two birds nested near camp while others passed through the area. These passing birds generally were seen singly or in pairs; long-tailed jaegers commonly are in groups of four or five. The parasitic jaegers were not so noisy nor so much given to chasing others of their own species as were long-tailed jaegers. Several single birds hunted in areas of sedges and grasses that yielded lemmings. On July 21, a parasitic jaeger was flying with three glaucous gulls, and demonstrating its usual flight tactics of gliding, climbing and swooping as it accompanied the gulls. ”

“ A nest of four eggs, first examined on July 5, 1951, 1⁄4 mile southeast of the Arctic Research Laboratory, was abandoned on July 11.
At Topagaruk (July 7, 1951) we flushed several adult semipalmated sandpipers whose behavior suggested that they were nesting. Two days later one nest held newly hatched young. This species was third in abundance there, adults constituting 15 per cent of the avian population. They were numerous on polygons having low centers and on high windswept knolls in association with black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones and pectoral sandpipers. ”

“ On July 9, 1952, at Topagaruk the oviduct of an adult female, 86 grams in weight, contained an egg in a shell 200 mm in diameter. Her second largest ovum was 10 mm. Breeding males on this date had testes averaging 11 mm in length. The average length of testis of 15 juveniles shot on August 3, 1951, at Teshekpuk Lake was 1.9 (1.5-2.0) mm. The average weight of these juveniles was 60 (50-81) grams. A comparison of male and female juveniles shows no significant differences. Nevertheless, adult males in both the breeding and post-breeding seasons are longer bodied and heavier than adult females. ”

“ At Kaolak males flew to meet any intruder and attempted to decoy the intruder while the female remained with the young, but at Kaolak River an observer would approach to within 80 feet of a nest or young whereupon the female feigned injury by fluttering her wings and moving on her belly in an effort to decoy the intruder, the male meanwhile remaining within 40 feet of the observer. ”

“ The following day 200 king eiders were in the same area. A male, shot there, measured 560 millimeters in total length. The muscles were only a third the size of those on a normal bird. Another eider found dead also was emaciated and may have died from gun shot wounds inflicted by the guns of the Eskimos. For every bird killed by Eskimos, several are injured; many of these die along the migration route. On July 28, king eiders were flying northwest along the shore of Elson Lagoon, thence across the Point Barrow Peninsula at Birnirk, and thence southwest along the coast of the Arctic Ocean. ”

“ Adult males are larger than adult females (July) . In the breeding season adult females average 3 grams lighter than males. In the latter part of summer, however, females "catch up" in weight with the males. As early as the middle of July, juveniles are nearly as large as adults in cranial measurements. The increase in weight in juveniles was from 21.5 (18-25) in ten juvenal males shot in the period July 12-16, at Kaolak River to 25.2 (22-27) grams in nine juvenal males shot in the period July 29-August 2 at Teshekpuk Lake.
The testes of adults gradually decrease in size from July to August ”

“ Males (August 19) from Chandler Lake were molting on the entire body.
On June 24, 1952, at Umiat, we examined three nests. One of the three contained incubated eggs; skeletal elements were present in the embryos. This nest, 150 mm in diameter and 52 mm in depth, was on the side of a mound three feet high covered with grass. The cup was 55 mm in diameter. The lining, 14 mm thick, was ptarmigan feathers averaging one inch long mixed with successive layers of stems of fine grass. The cup weighed four grams and rested directly on the ground. ”

“ As the sheep reached the east side of the canyon an eagle flew across the canyon and alighted approximately 150 feet from the sheep. A large group of small birds immediately harassed the eagle.
Two eagles fed on a dead caribou on a delta on the east side of Lake Peters. Eagles were noted every day at Lake Peters from July 31 to August 15 inclusive.
Falco rusticolus obsoletus Gmelin: Gyrfalcon.—At the southwest corner of Barrier Lake on July 29, 1951, a gyrfalcon sat on a bank 10 feet above the water level. A dead Arctic tern was on the beach only 90 feet away and visible to the gyrfalcon. ”

“ In summer these birds are protectively colored; at times a female only a few feet away is hardly distinguishable from the tundra. We observed only two adults and three juveniles in the area (July 5-10, 1952) although we saw considerable sign associated with the winter season. Sand dunes derived from material along the edge of the river formed a conspicuous feature of the landscape. These dunes, 20 to 30 feet high, were deeply cut by winds from the west-northwest. ”

“ On June 17, these birds were preying on live lemming and swallowing them whole. One flew 50 meters with a brown lemming in its mouth and after alighting, consumed it. The backs of several lemmings caught in traps had scars probably made by jaegers or conceivably by snowy owls. ”

“ Gavia Lake, 150°00', 69°35', 460 ft., 1, No. 31351, female, August 22, 1952; Umiat, 152°09'30", 69°22'08", 352 ft., 1, No. 31352, female, June 26, 1952; Chandler Lake, 152°45', 68°12', 2900 ft., 7, Nos. 30789-30795 including 1 ad. male, 1 juv. male, 1 ad. female, 4 juv. females, August 11, 12, 16, 18, 23, 1951.
The Lapland longspur and snow bunting were two of the early arrivals on the Arctic Slope of northern Alaska. Robert McKinley told us that this species of longspur arrived at Barrow Village shortly after April 20, 1952. ”