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Dr. Jeff Wells is the Senior Scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. During his time at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and as the Audubon Society's National Conservation Director, Dr. Wells earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. He is now dedicated to understanding and protecting the land where North America's birds are born and raised, the Boreal Forest of Canada and Alaska. Check back regularly to read Dr. Wells' perspectives on the conservation, migration and interesting habits of Boreal birds.
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Scoters by satellite

The vastness and remoteness of the Boreal forest has ensured that many aspects of the biology of birds of the Boreal are poorly known. Wetlands of the Boreal are critically important breeding and molting areas for many of the so-called sea ducks�duck species that typically winter in nearshore ocean waters along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.


Photo USGS
Male surf scoter fitted with PTT100 transmitter
For More information visit USGS Satellite Surf Scoter Tracking page

In the last few years a group of researchers working through a coalition called the Sea Duck Joint Venture, (http://seaduckjv.org) has been trying to learn more about these birds by sponsoring and promoting research on them. One of the most interesting studies has been the satellite telemetry projects that have allowed us all to see the amazing migrations of these birds. The Sea Duck Joint Venture has a page with links to numerous telemetry maps for a variety of sea ducks.
(http://seaduckjv.org/ststoc.html)

This year (2005) there are maps you can look at to see where Surf and White-winged Scoters tagged in coastal British Columbia and Surf Scoters tagged in Chesapeake Bay are this summer.
(http://seaduckjv.org/ststoc.html)

Most of the scoters tagged in British Columbia in the winter are now (as of July 5) in the Northwest Territories.
(http://seaduckjv.org/bcmaps/susc_bc_all2005.jpg)

Those tagged in Chesapeake Bay are now in northern Quebec and Labrador.
(http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/resshow/perry/scoters/Map_MenuH.htm)

More than 80% of North America’s Black, Surf, and White-winged scoters breed in the Boreal. Sadly, scoters are estimated to have seen a 50% decline in abundance in western North America since the 1950�s. The causes of the decline remain a mystery.

Jeff Wells
Senior Scientist
Boreal Songbird Initiative

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 23rd, 2005 at 6:41 pm and is filed under Migration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Scoters by satellite”

  1. Matthew Wilson Says:
    August 15th, 2005 at 7:25 pm

    Jeff,

    For more information please check the above site. Currently the Sea Duck Joint Venture and USGS are not well coordinated on web sites or maps but we plan to work on that this winter so all the projects results can be presented in one format. There is information about the nest find and the efforts of the San Francisco Bay field station.

    I enjoyed your blog and hope that more people get to read it.

    Thanks,

    Matt Wilson
    Biologist, USGS

    http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pending/scoter/2005/nest.html

  2. Wilbur Wilson Says:
    November 26th, 2005 at 2:22 am

    Hunting the Des Moines river in central Iowa Nov. 24th 2005 we seen 4 black scoters at 20 yard and many dark ducks flying a foot or so off the water. We have been hunting this lake sence it was built in the 70′S and seen no birds like these in all this time!
    bigwilbs

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