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
Four adult males shot in the period July 1-15, at Umiat, Wahoo and
Porcupine lakes averaged 158(155-165) mm in total length and 18(16-18)
grams in weight whereas 12 adult males (Aug. 14-31) from Chandler
Lake, Umiat, Gavia Lake and Driftwood averaged 161(156-165) mm in
length and 19(16-21) grams in weight. A male (June 26) from Umiat was
160 mm long, weighed 15 grams, and had testes 4 mm long. Males from
Wahoo Lake (July 6 and 8) had testes 9 and 5 mm long. Males (August
19) from Chandler Lake were molting on the entire body.
On June 24, 1952, at Umiat, we examined three nests. One of the three
contained incubated eggs; skeletal elements were present in the
embryos. This nest, 150 mm in diameter and 52 mm in depth, was on the
side of a mound three feet high covered with grass. The cup was 55 mm
in diameter. The lining, 14 mm thick, was ptarmigan feathers averaging
one inch long mixed with successive layers of stems of fine grass. The
cup weighed four grams and rested directly on the ground. The outer
part of the nest was coarse stems of a grass and was 30 mm thick. The
edge and upper side, away from the mound, had a 40-millimeter
thickness of mosses and lichens that may have served primarily as
camouflage rather than as insulation. The nest, minus the lining
weighed nine grams. The second nest held four eggs containing embryos.
The top was flush with the surface of the ground on a slightly
elevated bench on a hillside supporting _Ledum_, _Vaccinium_, _Alnus_,
mosses and lichens. The greatest width of the nest was 120 mm; the
lining, 11-millimeters thick, was of ptarmigan feathers succeeded by
13 mm of alternating layers of new dry grass stems and ptarmigan
feathers. The down-slope side of the nest was protected by 29 mm of
sphagnum, old grass stems and other dry plant material. The third nest
of four eggs was among grasses at the base of a willow. The new leaves
on this willow were just visible and the catkins had attained full
growth.
The earliest date that juvenal tree sparrows were noted in the field
was on July 10, 1952, at Wahoo Lake. One juvenile shot on this date
was 85 mm long and could not fly. The parent bird was still attending
the young bird.
Tree sparrows on the Arctic Slope usually live among high dwarf
willows at the mouths of canyons. At Porcupine Lake (July 13-18, 1952)
however, they inhabited marshes of sedges, grasses and hummocks of
cotton-grass. At night they roosted in depressions in the ground or
between hummocks of sedges, where, without overhead protections they
endured temperatures of as low as 34 degrees Fahrenheit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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