Population delineation, winter/spring habitat use, migration ecology and harvest of Surf Scoters (Melanitta perspicillata) from the southern portion of their winter range

Project Number: 63

Year Funded: 2008

Lead Institution(s): Simon Fraser University

Project Lead: Dan Esler

Email:

Collaborator(s): Kathy Brodhead (SFU), David Ward (USGS), Sharon Herzka (CICESE), Roberto Carmona (UABCS)

Location: Mexico

Focal Species: Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata)

Project Description: Thousands of surf scoters (M. perspicillata) winter along the west coast of Baja California, Mexico (Conant and Voelzer unpubl. data), which represents the southern extent of their wintering range, yet virtually nothing is known about their wintering ecology (e.g., movements, foods, habitats used) in the region. Efforts to delineate populations of Pacific surf scoters have been substantial, with deployment of radios (VHF and PTT) across wintering sites from Alaska (Rosenberg and Petrula 1999), British Columbia (D. Esler and S. Boyd, unpubl. data), Puget Sound, Washington (D. Nyeswander and J. Evenson, unpubl. data), and San Francisco Bay, California (J. Takekawa and S. Wainwright-De la Cruz, unpubl. data). These projects have led to important advances in our understanding of winter habitat use, movements during migration, and breeding distributions. Lacking, however, is a comprehensive assessment of these issues for surf scoters that winter in the southern portion of their winter range (southern California to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California), a region that historically supported tens of thousands of Surf Scoters (Saunders and Saunders 1981; Takekawa unpublished data).