Project Description

More than half of North American sea duck populations have apparently declined over the past 2-3 decades, although reasons for declines are unknown.  Population delineation (i.e., the links among breeding, molting, wintering, and staging areas) is critical information needed to design and interpret  monitoring surveys, to better understand population ecology and population dynamics, and determine limiting factors and potential strategies to improve conservation status of sea ducks.   Extensive satellite telemetry studies have been done on several sea duck species on the Pacific coast, but relatively little is known about population delineation for sea ducks in eastern North America, most notably for surf scoter, black scoter, white-winged scoter, and long-tailed duck – all of which are species of conservation concern.  Sea ducks are one of the primary wildlife species utilizing coastal habitats in the Atlantic during winter.

This project is a large-scale, multi-year, multi-partner satellite tracking program for sea ducks along the Atlantic coast and Great Lakes, with the following objectives: 

• Fully describe the annual migration patterns for four species of sea ducks (surf scoter, black scoter, white-winged scoter, long-tailed duck) by 2013.
• Quantify the proportion of the flyway population of each of the four focal species that winters within the Great Lakes, north Atlantic, mid-Atlantic, and south Atlantic regions.
• Estimate average length-of-stay during winter in areas of high concern relative to wind farms (e.g., Maine-Penobscot Bay, Nantucket Sound, and coastal Rhode Island, Lake Erie).
• Map local movements of individual radio-marked ducks in three areas slated for placement of wind turbines.
• Estimate rates of annual site fidelity to wintering areas, breeding areas, and molting areas for all four focal species.

More than 200 satellite transmitters will be deployed on sea ducks from 2009-2012.  The project is funded in part by the Sea Duck Joint Venture and in part by various partners.

Bird Migration Maps (pages under construction - stay tuned)

• Long-tailed Duck
• Black Scoter
• Surf Scoter
• White-winged Scoter

Progress Reports

Recommendations and Guidelines for Satellite Telemetry Studies of Sea Ducks (pdf)

Protocols for collecting tissue samples

• Feathers for Stable Isotope Analyses (pdf)
• Blood for Contaminants and Disease Screening (pdf)
• Tissues for Genetics (pdf)

Current partners
(click logo to view partners homepage)