Annual cycle connectivity, inter- and intra-annual site fidelity, and habitat use of Barrow’s Goldeneye wintering in Prince William Sound, Alaska

Project Number: 114

Year Funded: 2009

Lead Institution(s): Enviornment and Climate Change Canada

Project Lead: Sean Boyd

Email:

Collaborator(s): Dan Esler (SFU), Tim Bowman (USFWS)

Location: Alaska

Focal Species: Barrow’s Goldeneye (Bucephala islandica)

Project Description: This project helps fill some of the more important information needs for BAGO noted in the latest SDJV Strategic Plan, namely population delineation, population dynamics and population ecology. We marked individuals with satellite transmitters to quantify several important demographic attributes, including seasonal connectivity, site fidelity and dispersal rates. Connectivity among annual cycle stages, rates of site fidelity at all stages, and the geographic scale of dispersal are largely unknown for Pacific Barrow’s Goldeneye (BAGO). This precludes managers and researchers from identifying demographically discrete units for population management, and for understanding the scale of inference from field studies. Further, habitats and specific sites that may be particularly important for BAGO are difficult to identify, as this species is not well covered by surveys for most of its annual cycle and most of its range. This project takes advantage of a relatively large number of satellite transmitters (PTTs) provided by USFWS to study the annual cycle and ecology of BAGOs wintering in Prince William Sound AK. It complements similar studies on BAGOs in BC (SDJV Project # 85) and Alberta (SDJV Project # 18).