Migratory and winter movements of Arctic Alaska breeding Sabine's Gulls (Xema sabini)

• Main Authors: McGuire, Rebecca, Legasse, Benjamin, Robards, Martin, Egelhoff, Wyatt, Helmericks, James
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2024
• Subjects: geolocators; GPS pinpoint tag; migration; staging; seabird; Wintering; Antarc*; Antarctic; British Antarctic Survey; Sabine's Gull; Xema sabini; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.tqjq2bw5t

The Sabine's Gull ( Xema sabini ) is a pelagic, Arctic-breeding species with a circumpolar breeding distribution. Little is known about migration routes for Sabine's Gulls breeding in the Alaskan Arctic. We tagged Sabine's Gulls on their northern Alaska breeding grounds to identify migration routes and wintering areas and compare geolocators and GPS pinpoint tags for use on small-bodied gulls. Twelve geolocators were deployed in northern Alaska in 2011 (Colville River Delta) of which four were recovered, and five GPS pinpoint tags in 2021 (Qupaluk). Although the GPS pinpoint tags provided more accurate locations allowing for finer-scale habitat evaluation, and did not require recapture of birds, the overall coverage provided by geolocators was superior in this study given the constraints of the number of locations GPS pinpoint tags can record. Broadly, the four (one tag failed) tracked Sabine's Gulls migrated away from the breeding grounds as expected, passing along the west coast of Alaska and south along the west coast of the Americas to winter in the Humboldt Current off the coast of Peru. Our tracked gulls used the same migratory staging and wintering areas as did Sabine's Gulls breeding in the Canadian Arctic (Davis et al., 2016). Such reliance on specific marine areas presents risks from climate-related changes or ecological damage to those areas. Funding provided by: Wildlife Conservation Society Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/01xnsst08 Award Number: Funding provided by: National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/01250xt95 Award Number: Funding provided by: Bureau of Land Management Crossref Funder Registry ID: https://ror.org/01sy5zn44 Award Number: We deployed Mk12 (British Antarctic Survey) light-level geolocators (<1g) at two sites in northern Alaska; the Colville River Delta (Anachlik Island; 70°23'N, 151°29'W), and northeast of Teshekpuk Lake (Qupaluk; 70°40'N, 152°43'W). In the summer of 2011, we captured 12 adult Sabine's Gulls on ...