Molting White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca) in the St. Lawrence estuary: survival estimates, philopatry to molting sites, location of fall staging, wintering, spring staging and breeding areas

Project Number: 127

Year Funded: 2010

Lead Institution(s): Environment and Climate Change Canada

Project Lead: Jean-Pierre Savard

Email:

Collaborator(s): Christine Lepage (CWS), Scott Gilliland (CWS), Jean-Francois Giroux

Location: Quebec

Focal Species: White-winged Scoter (Melanitta delgandi)

Project Description: Although recent progress has been made on the western population, much remains to be done on the eastern population of White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca). The relatively small size of the eastern population and the high hunting pressure (SDJV 2005) it sustains is cause for concern. The White-winged Scoter is on the list of Recommended USFWS Migratory Bird Program Focal Species (USFWS 2005). A recent compilation by the Sea Duck Monitoring Working Group suggests that as much as 14.1% of eastern population of White-winged Scoter is harvested (SDJV 2005). White-winged Scoters are the largest and least numerous of the scoters so that extreme caution is needed in their exploitation. It is still unknown whether there are one or several North American populations and the species is still addressed globally in Management plans (SDJVMB 2007). Management of the eastern population, which is the most impacted by hunting, is impaired by lack of knowledge on its ecology and distribution (Brown and Fredrickson 1997, SDJVMB 2007). Brown and Fredrickson (1997), in their review of the state of knowledge on the species in North America, emphasized the absence of knowledge on the molting distribution and ecology of Whitewinged Scoters. Studies of the eastern population of White-winged Scoters have been impaired by its poorly known breeding distribution (Limoges and Morrier 1996) and by the remoteness of the only known breeding concentration (Benoit et al. 1994, Bergeron et al. 1996). The recent discovery of White-winged Scoter molting sites in the St. Lawrence estuary (CWS unpublished data; >4,000 birds) and the development of an efficient capture technique (Gilliland et al. 2007, Lepage and Savard 2007) provided an opportunity to learn more about the molt ecology of White-winged Scoters and the relationships between molting, wintering and breeding sites.