28 



J. C. BARTOKEK AND S. G. SEALY 



were reported for Wales Mountain (Ford 

 1936; Bailey 1943, 1948) and the Cold Bay 

 area (Bailey 1973) (Fig. 3). 



Only the colonies at Cape Thompson have 

 been censused systematically throughout a 

 breeding season. During one of three years of 

 varying census efforts, Swartz (1966) esti- 

 mated that about 400,000 birds of nine 

 species occupied the cliffs. Whereas the Cape 

 Thompson colonies received considerable at- 

 tention because of Swartz's efforts, the colo- 

 nies that extend along nearly 35 km of head- 

 lands southward from, but mainly at, Cape 

 Lisburne have received little if any attention 

 by either early or recent ornithologists in the 

 Arctic, even though they support perhaps 

 twice the number of birds. Also perplexing is 

 why Chamisso and Puffin islands with their 

 several thousand nesting horned puffins and 

 lesser numbers of other seabirds were desig- 

 nated as the Chamisso National Wildlife 

 Refuge in the early 1900's when none of the 

 many larger and more species-diverse colonies 

 in the area received comparable recognition 

 by and protection through refuge designation. 



The lowlands on the north side of the 

 Seward Peninsula produce fall flights of sea 

 ducks that average 49,200 oldsquaws (Clan- 

 gula hyemalis), 51,000 eiders (mostly common 

 eiders, Somateria mollissima), and 26,700 

 scoters (mostly black scoters, Melanitta 

 nigra) (King and Lensink 1971). Small popula- 

 tions of black brant and emperor geese breed 

 in what outwardly appears to be excellent 

 habitat, and King and Lensink (1971) specu- 

 lated that subsistence hunting by local 

 Eskimos is responsible for suppressing these 

 populations. 



Bering Sea 



The largest concentration of nesting sea- 

 birds in the Bering Sea and perhaps in the en- 

 tire North Pacific is that on St. George 

 Island. Colonies that rank somewhere below 

 that at St. George are along the coast from 

 Cape Newenham to Cape Peirce, in the Walrus 

 Islands (Round, High, Crooked, and Summit 

 islands, The Twins, and Black Rock), at Cape 

 Mohican on Nunivak Island, St. Matthew 

 Island, Southwest Cape of St. Lawrence 

 Island, and King Island. 



The Pribilofs have the unique distinction of 

 being the primary nesting site of red-legged 



kittiwakes (Rissa brevirostris). They are also 

 interesting from the zoogeographic stand- 

 point in that they are the northernmost 

 stronghold of red-faced cormorants (Phalacro- 

 corax urile); guillemots are conspicuous by 

 their absence, and larid gulls are con- 

 spicuously scarce nesters. 



St. Matthew Island and associated Hall and 

 Pinnacle islands, and all but Walrus Island of 

 the Pribilofs, are sites of nesting northern ful- 

 mars (Fulmarus glacialis). Nesting fork-tailed 

 or Leach's storm-petrels (Oceanodroma fur- 

 cata and O. leucorhoa) have been found no- 

 where in this region, although both are com- 

 monly observed at sea and both nest through- 

 out the Aleutians. 



Most colony sites identified in Fig. 2 are 

 dominated by common or thick-billed murres 

 (or both) and black-legged kittiwakes. Glau- 

 cous gulls (generally north of the Yukon- 

 Kuskokwim delta), glaucous- winged gulls 

 (Larus glaucescens) (generally to the south of 

 the delta), and pelagic cormorants occupy al- 

 most every rocky prominence along the entire 

 coast (most of these sites are not shown in 

 Figs. 2 and 3). Double-crested cormorants 

 (Phalacrocorax auritus) nest at a few island 

 and inland locations in the Bristol Bay area. 

 The small auklets are largely restricted to 

 islands in the Bering Sea; the parakeet auklet 

 is the only one occasionally found in mainland 

 colonies. 



The marine birds of the Yukon-Kuskokwim 

 delta lowlands, although largely uncounted, 

 in their aggregate probably exceed the num- 

 bers at any individual site identified in Fig. 2. 

 This is not particularly surprising since the 

 delta has nearly 70,000 km 2 of habitat (King 

 and Lensink 1971) in contrast to the generally 

 small parcels of habitat occupied at the sea- 

 cliff and island sites. 



King and Lensink (1971) estimated that fall 

 flights of sea ducks originating on the delta 

 averaged 292,300 oldsquaws, 51,000 eiders 

 (mostly common and spectacled eiders with 

 lesser numbers of Steller's eiders, Polysticta 

 stelleri), and 157,000 scoters (primarily black 

 scoters). They also estimated that half of the 

 150,000 black brant and most of the 150,000 

 emperor geese in Alaska's fall flight originate 

 there. Although no counts have been made, 

 we believe that the delta's lowlands support 

 easily more than half of Alaska's nesting dun- 



