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
Variations in parental display are indicated by the following
observations. At Kaolak River (July 12) we flushed a family of adults
and young. The male called as he left the ground and then he flew
across the lake. The female, when flushed at a distance of 10 feet
from the observer, feigned injury for 12 seconds before following the
male. Seven young, averaging seven inches in length, left the ground
and flew in the opposite direction from that taken by the male and
female, to swales of cotton-grass and willow on the hillside. Another
adult male and female were at the side of a young bird held in a trap.
The female first left the young and fluttered over the vegetation for
40 feet and the male flew out of the area. Four other young were
flushed 30 feet from the trap that held the captured ptarmigan. On
July 17, while walking through a wet meadow of grasses and sedges, we
flushed a male, female and four young (150 mm in length). The female
crawled through vegetation for 30 feet and then rose into the air. At
this same moment four young left the ground. The female, while in the
air, reversed her course and joined the young, which had alighted
some 300 feet away. On July 23, 1951, a family of two adults and 10
young were flushed. The male returned and chattered until the female
arrived. The male then retreated 15 feet beyond the observer and
remained close to the female while she tried to distract our attention
from the young by pretending to have an injured wing. In a group of
one male, two females and four young at Kaolak (July 21, 1951) the
male and young left after the females fluttered along the ground for
30 feet.
Adults and young do not always escape by flying; on July 20, 1951, we
were enroute from the landing lake to Kaolak when an adult male and
female with eight young ran 200 feet down established tracks of a
weasel vehicle. It was necessary to reduce the speed of the vehicle to
spare the young. A male at Kaolak River (July 12, 1951) ran 150 feet
under the protection of willows to an opening where it remained until
flushed. It flew 50 feet, then alighted in another patch of willows.
At Gavia Lake at 11:30 P.M. a ptarmigan called because one of its
young was caught in a trap at the edge of a lake. The juvenal bird,
unharmed, was released and inadvertently was dropped into the water
where it floated but finally, becoming confused, got its head and bill
under water and drowned.
On July 15, 1951, at 11:00 P.M. at Kaolak River, we heard a ptarmigan
joining an Arctic tern and several sandpipers in protest to a passing
red fox.
For three consecutive days a family (male, female and young) at
Topagaruk was within 50 feet of one place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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