2020 ARTE documentation

Skagway Arctic Terns 2020

Summary

During spring 2020, a special effort was made by volunteers to help manage nesting gulls and terns near the airstrip. At the same time, the tern nesting protected area on the Ore peninsula was set up and available to the terns.

Covid-19 pandemic measures shut down cruise ship and most other tourism throughout the summer. Therefore, the level of human activity in Skagway was greatly reduced from previous years, which undoubtedly had some effect upon nesting birds.

General observations for 2020 are below this summary. Download the observations below in an easy-to-print PDF file: 2020 Skagway ARTE colony

Observations from the special volunteer effort to manage nesting gulls and terns at the airstrip are on this page: 2020 airstrip terns

Airstrip river bar site

The bulk of the Arctic Tern colony moved to the airstrip river bar in 2017, although a few terns attempted nesting at other locations since then.

In 2020, volunteers augmented daily DOT gull and tern hazing at the airstrip site from 23 April to 27 May. On 19 May, the terns largely abandoned nesting attempts at the airstrip site, with less than ten terns seen in the area until 27 May when volunteer hazing stopped and 11 terns were reported.

During June and July, 30-40 adults made 2^nd attempts at nesting at the airstrip site.

Ore peninsula protected area

Arctic Tern use of the Ore peninsula protected area was low during 2018 and 2019. In 2017 use was moderate, and prior to that the bulk of the colony nested in this area for many years.

In 2020, terns were seen in the protected area, with several nesting attempts. Tern presence peaked just before volunteer hazing at the airstrip site stopped. After that, no terns were found at the protected area, while many terns returned to the airstrip site and nested again.

Note: since dedicated volunteers checked the Ore peninsula almost every day but only sent in reports when terns were observed, days with no reports below indicate that the site was checked but no terns were seen.

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2020 general observations.

These observations below were collected from Skagway Bird Club members through our forum, or from anybody who wished to contribute via email to sbc@aptalaska.net

Information requested:

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