Unusual late July observation of a fledgling Lapland longspur in low Arctic Greenland following the cool spring of 2018

• Published in: Arctic Science
• Main Authors: Eric Post, Eva Beyen, Pernille Sporon Bøving, R. Conor Higgins, Christian John, Jeff Kerby, Christian Pedersen, David A. Watts
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; French
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2019
• Subjects: arctic; phenology; nesting; climate; warming; green-up timing; Environmental sciences; GE1-350; Environmental engineering; TA170-171; Arctic; Greenland; Kangerlussuaq; Lapland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2018-0031; https://doaj.org/article/0f8c8e15872f4c73917eab479bce80e3

We report an observation of a flightless fledgling Lapland longspur (Calcarius lapponicus (Linnaeus, 1758)) at a long-term study site near Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, in late July 2018. Based on our observations of longspur nests at the site dating back to 1993, we estimate that the fledgling observed in 2018 may have originated from a nest initiated 12–37 d later than nesting in previous years. Onset of spring in 2018 was late, but comparable with other years in which longspur nests were observed a full calendar month earlier than in 2018. An analysis including multiple candidate predictor variables revealed a strong negative association between estimated longspur nest initiation dates and mean May temperature, as well as a weaker association with the length of the annual period of vegetation green up at the site. Given the limitations of our data, however, we are unable to assign causality to the 2018 observation, and cannot rule out other possibilities, such as that it may have resulted from a second clutch.