Breeding Ecology of Scoters nesting in the Lower Mackenzie River Watershed, NWT

Project Number: 20

Year Funded: 2005

Lead Institution(s): Ducks Unlimited Canada

Project Lead: Stuart Slattery

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Collaborator(s): USFWS, DUC, GRRB, ECCC

Location: Northwest Territories

Focal Species: White-winged Scoter (Melanitta delgandi)

Project Description: The continental population of scoters (all three species combined) has declined by over 58% since 1978, from about 1.75 million to about 700,000 birds. We cannot reliably predict where limitations on these taxa have occurred or where they might be most responsive to management because we lack basic data on population dynamics. However, retrospective analyses examining correlations between declining scaup and scoter populations suggest that these birds share limiting factors in the NWT. We are using a combination of markrecapture techniques (including radio-marking prenesting females), nest searching, and brood observations to estimate demographic parameters and habitat use of scoters nesting in the Lower Mackenzie River watershed. This region is within the NWT, where over 65% of the scoter breeding population historically occurred, and declines approach 70% over the past 24 years. The project is also a sister study to our scaup breeding ecology work at the same site and will permit comparisons of demographic rates without confounding effects of spatial and temporal variation between studies.