Birds Found on the Arctic Slope of Northern AlaskaBee, James W.
Science
Birds Found on the Arctic Slope of Northern Alaska
Bee, James W.
Birds -- Alaska
Robert McKinley told us that in the last week of April of 1952, eiders
(king?) arrived in the vicinity of the Arctic Research Laboratory in
large numbers and continued to pass to the east for the next three
weeks. King eiders were observed at Point Barrow on July 3, 1951.
Ninety king eiders and 30 Pacific eiders were resting on the shore of
the Arctic Ocean at Point Barrow on August 25, 1952. The following day
200 king eiders were in the same area. A male, shot there, measured
560 millimeters in total length. The muscles were only a third the
size of those on a normal bird. Another eider found dead also was
emaciated and may have died from gun shot wounds inflicted by the guns
of the Eskimos. For every bird killed by Eskimos, several are injured;
many of these die along the migration route. On July 28, king eiders
were flying northwest along the shore of Elson Lagoon, thence across
the Point Barrow Peninsula at Birnirk, and thence southwest along the
coast of the Arctic Ocean. This day was foggy and wind was from the
east. On clear days and especially when wind blows from the northwest,
king eiders cross the peninsula a fifth of a mile or so nearer Point
Barrow, which is the most northern extension of the Peninsula. More
eiders moved by on clear days than on cloudy or foggy days. In one
hour, ten flocks, averaging 400 birds each, passed overhead at Birnirk
(July 28); three days earlier flocks of from 50 to 300 passed
approximately every 20 minutes. Eskimos on this date were shooting
into these flocks of eider and bagging them in excess of the winter
needs of the hunters. One Eskimo had 40 king eiders undressed and
hanging on a drying rod at his home at Barrow Village (Sept. 2, 1952).
On July 29, 1951, we flew from Point Barrow to Teshekpuk Lake and
observed (2:00-3:00 P.M.) only two small flocks of king eiders. On
August 1, 1951, at Barrier Lake, three large flocks were flying west
beyond the north end of the lake. This was the first day since July
29, on which we had seen such large flocks so far inland.
On September 11, 1952, eight king eiders were resting on the shore of
the Arctic Ocean at Point Barrow.
+Lampronetta fischeri+ (Brandt): Spectacled eider.--On July 28,
1951, at Birnirk, several flocks were flying along the Arctic Ocean.
+Melanitta perspicillata+ (Linnaeus): Surf scoter.--Specimens, 2:
Porcupine Lake, 146 deg.29'50", 68 deg.51'57", 3140 ft., No. 31307 and 31308,
ad. males, July 15, 1952.
Two males shot at Porcupine Lake on July 15, 1952, measured as
follows: Total length, 489 mm, 495 mm; length of testis, 9 mm, 11 mm;
weight, 1134 grams, 998 grams. These birds were frequently seen
together along the south side of the lake. At Lake Schrader (July 27,
1952), 15 scoters, in loose groups of two to six, fed in the southwest
corner of the lake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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