Shorebird tracking Bristol Bay coast spring 2002

Doster, Jodi; Savage, Susan

The precise migratory path and timing of many shorebird species in the Pacific flyway continues to be a mystery. Managers and Biologists know that the Bristol Bay coastline is important to large groups of staging shorebirds in spring (King & Brackney 1990, King and Dau 1989 and 1990) and in late summer and fall (Gill and Jorgensen 1979, King and Brackney 1990). All of the major bays and estuaries along the Bristol Bay coast have been nominated for designation in the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network. A group of cooperators led primarily by Dr. Mary Anne Bishop of the Prince William Sound Science Center have been studying the various pathways of several species of shorebird including Western sandpiper (Calidris mauri) (Bishop and Warnock 1998). Again this year, lead by Dr. Bishop, this group of cooperators (see Appendix A) proposed to study long-billed dowitcher (limnodromus scolopaceus) and western sandpiper. In addition, Dr. Oscar (Wally) Johnson proposed to continue studies on Pacific golden-plover migratory paths and timing. Because all of these species are known to use the Bristol Bay coastline and the refuge's interest in the status of shorebirds in the local area, the refuge wildlife biologist agreed to cooperate with the study again this year by budgeting for and scheduling telemetry flights during the migratory period (Savage 2001, Warnock et al. 2001). This report simply summarizes the information collected during our refuge's efforts in spring, 2002. A more comprehensive report of the entire project will be forthcoming from the lead investigators.