Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org

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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
Alaska Bird Conference
           2019
         Program

             March 4–8
         Fairbanks, Alaska
    www.alaskabirdconference.org
Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
Welcome to the Alaska Bird Conference!
    The first Alaska Bird Conference was held in 1985 in Anchorage. It grew from the often-
    expressed need for exchange of information among those in government, universities, non-
    government organizations, and the private sector who are working with Alaska’s diverse and
    abundant birds. The conference has been held on an approximately biennial basis ever since.

    This year marks the 18th Alaska Bird Conference. The conference regularly attracts
    between 150 and 200 participants reporting on their findings and new initiatives. By design,
    the conference retains a familiar and friendly atmosphere, welcoming new students and
    ornithologists into the field, and providing a much-anticipated gathering for those who work
    with and care for Alaska’s birds.

    This year’s conference is hosted by the Alaska Songbird
    Institute with significant contributions from a local
    organizing committee.

    The Alaska Songbird Institute is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to
    research, education and conservation of Alaska’s boreal
    birds. Based at Creamer’s Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge
    in Fairbanks they manage two long-term projects: the
    Creamer’s Field Migration Station (1992–present) and the
    Swallow Ecology Project (1994–present). These projects
    have archived decades of data on the migration, timing and
    productivity of Alaska’s boreal songbirds, while educating tens of
    thousands of people about ecology, research, and conservation.

    Learn more about ASI and how to support our work at www.aksongbird.org.

    *Cover image by Pam Seiser.

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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
2019 Isleib Award
We are proud to announce Dr. Colleen Marie Handel is the winner of the 2019 E. “Pete” Isleib
Award for Avian Conservation. We recognize her substantial contribution to Alaska ornithology
and lifetime achievement in advancing the conservation of Alaska’s non-game birds. Colleen
began her career in Alaska as a technician in 1975. Today she works as a Research Wildlife
Biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center.

Colleen has long been one of the “big thinkers” of Alaska ornithology, authoring more than
80 scientific papers that chronicle her extensive research on the ecology of poorly studied
shorebirds and landbirds in Alaska. Among her many contributions, she highlighted the global
importance of Alaska’s coastal habitats to shorebirds, pioneered the use of satellite telemetry to
track the migrations of Alaska’s shorebirds, documented and then unraveled the elusive mystery
of the world’s largest concentration of avian beak deformities, and designed and analyzed
surveys to inventory or monitor birds across Alaska’s vast federal lands. She now leads research
under the USGS Changing Arctic Ecosystems Initiative to forecast the effects of climate change
on Alaskan birds and their habitats. Throughout her career she has stayed at the forefront of
ornithology by applying the latest techniques in biometry, wildlife movement, genetics, disease
research, toxicology, landscape ecology, and climate science.

Colleen has also demonstrated great commitment and service to the greater ornithological
community. She is a founding member of both Boreal Partners in Flight and the Alaska Shorebird
Group. She was an Associate Editor for The Auk, is a current Editor for The Condor: Ornithological
Applications, and was made a fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union in 2013. Through
these and many more contributions to conservation and research, Colleen has tirelessly offered
her time and expertise to agencies, researchers, conservationists and students.

Through her lifetime contributions to Alaska ornithology, Colleen has been responsible in large
part for putting the ecology and conservation of non-game birds into the lexicon of resource
                                                          managers, government agencies, and
                                                          the public across Alaska. She has
                                                          directly influenced more than one
                                                          generation of ornithologists through
                                                          her research and leadership and has
                                                          forged a legacy that will continue to
                                                          shape the conservation of Alaska birds
                                                          for generations to come.

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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
Monday, March 4                                         Tuesday, March 5
              Westmark Yukon Room                                      Westmark Gold Room

    9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.                                   8:15–8:30 a.m.
    Boreal Partners in Flight & Alaska Raptor Group        Introduction and welcome
    joint annual meeting
                                                           8:30–9:30 a.m.
    1:30–4:30 p.m.                                                                 Invited speaker: Uma Bhatt
    Alaska Shorebird Group annual meeting                                          Consequence of sea-ice decline for
                                                                                   the earth system
    5:00–8:00 p.m                                                                  Uma Bhatt, University of Alaska
    Celebrating Alaska’s Birds art show                                            Fairbanks, Dept. of Atmospheric
                                                                                   Sciences. Uma’s research focuses
    Well St. Art Gallery                                                           on climate variability and links
    Transportation between Westmark and gallery                                    among components of the
    provided approx. every 30 min. by Northern Alaska                              climate system. Her work includes
    Tour Company. Meet at Gold Room outdoor entrance.                              seasonal forecasting of Arctic sea
                                                                                   ice and drivers of Arctic tundra
                                                                                   vegetation change.
    Field trips
    Owl ski (or snowshoe)                                  9:30–10:00 a.m.
    Tuesday March 5, 7–9 p.m.
                                                           Coffee break
    Enjoy a Fairbanks winter night with a guided
    owl tour and possible aurora viewing. We will
                                                           Conservation & management
    listen and search for local pre-nesting owls along
                                                           Chair: Philip Martin
    Fairbanks trails. This is an off-trail event and you
    need to provide your own skis (or snowshoes) and       10:00 a.m.
    headlamp (a few will be available upon request).       Audubon Alaska’s watchlist of declining or vulnerable
    Yummy hot beverages encouraged! You need to            Alaska birds
    provide transport, but we’ll organize carpooling as    Nils Warnock & Max Goldman
    best we can. Meet at Poster Session or trailhead       10:15 a.m.
    (TBA). Max people: 20. Free.                           Using the Alaska species ranking system to identify
                                                           species of conservation concern
    Behind the scenes tour of UAF museum                   Amanda Droghini, Rachel Kelty, & Paul Schuette
    Wednesday March 6, 5:30–6:30 p.m.
                                                           10:30 a.m.
    Get an inside tour of the UAF Museum with Jack         Eiders and sea ice: Spectacled Eider winter surveys past,
    Withrow and their collection of birds. This is a       present and future
    special tour that only Alaska Bird Conference          Daniel Rizzolo, Kate Martin, Neesha Stellrecht, Bryan
    attendees get to enjoy. You need to provide            Daniels, William Larned, David Safine, & Julian Fischer
    transport, but we’ll organize carpooling as best we
    can. Max people: 10. Free.                             10:45 a.m.
                                                           Marine protected areas (MPAs) for wintering Aleutian
                                                           Terns? Surveys, assessments and conclusions from coastal
                                                           China, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea
                                                           Falk Huettmann
                                                           11:00 a.m.
                                                           The benefit of birds: ecological value and vulnerability in
                                                           the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort Seas
                                                           Max Goldman, Erika Knight, Brianne Mecum, Ben
                                                           Sullender, Molly Zaleski, Melanie Smith, & Jon Warrenchuk
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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
11:15 a.m.                                                    2:30 p.m.
Shorebird subsistence harvest and Indigenous                  Implementation of Arctic PRISM surveys in western
knowledge in Alaska                                           Alaska: What we learned about shorebird distributions
Liliana C. Naves, Jacqueline M. Keating, T. Lee Tibbitts, &   on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta
Daniel R. Ruthrauff                                           Kristine M. Sowl, Stephen C. Brown, James E. Lyons, Richard
                                                              B. Lanctot, Brad Winn, Sarah T. Saalfeld, James A. Johnson,
11:30 a.m.                                                    Brian J. McCaffery, & Brad A. Andres
Sandhill Crane roosting behavior on the Delta River and
Delta Creek, Fort Wainwright, Alaska                          2:45 p.m.
Kim Jochum & Justin Smith                                     Marine-associated bird and mammal habitat use in the
                                                              Five Finger Light
11:45 a.m.                                                    Lori Beraha*
The state bird collection and the University of Alaska        3:00 p.m.
Museum: research and directions                               Modeling the winter habitat use and mortality risks of
Kevin Winker                                                  Cassin’s Auklets and Pigeon Guillemots in the North
                                                              Pacific
12:00–1:30 p.m.                                               Michael E. Johns*, Pete Warzybok, Jaime Jahncke, Mark
Lunch                                                         Lindberg, & Greg Breed

Conservation & management cont.                               3:15–3:45 p.m.
Chair: Dan Rizzolo                                            Coffee break
1:30 p.m.
Birds of a feather flock together... or do they? Regional     3:45–4:15 p.m.
and temporal patterns of community composition and                                    Invited speaker: Rick Thoman
abundance in nearshore marine birds across the Gulf of
Alaska                                                                                Taking flight: accelerating climate
Heather Coletti, Robert Suryan, Dan Esler, Robert Kaler,                              changes in the seas around Alaska
Tuula Hollmen, Mayumi Arimitsu, James Bodkin, Thomas                                  Rick Thoman, University of Alaska
Dean, Kimberly Kloecker, Kathy Kuletz, John Piatt, Brian                              Fairbanks, International Arctic
Robinson, & Benjamin Weitzman                                                         Research Center. Rick is an Alaska
                                                                                      climate specialist who focuses on
Habitat use                                                                           translating climate change data.

1:45 p.m.                                                     4:15–5:00 p.m.
Raptor studies for a proposed hydroelectric project in
Alaska: Application of innovative techniques                                          Invited speaker: Coastal
                                                                                      Observation and Seabird
John E. Shook & Joseph H. Welch
                                                                                      Survey Team (COASST)
2:00 p.m.                                                                             Seabird Mortality Events in the
Persistence of bird concentration areas on Alaska’s                                   North Pacific 2013–2018
Arctic Coastal Plain
                                                                                      COASST is a citizen science
Benjamin K. Sullender & Melanie A. Smith
                                                                                      group that tracks seabird
2:15 p.m.                                                                             populations and die-offs. They
Spoon-billed Sandpiper model-predictions with open                                    train coastal residents, including
access data and machine learning: Why, how and what                                   those in rural Alaska, to conduct
we know                                                                               regular surveys of their beaches.
Falk Huettmann

*Indicates a student presentation

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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
Poster session                                                    Contaminants research takes flight: emerging concerns
    5:30–8:00 p.m.                                                    for Yellow-billed Loons in northern Alaska
    Westmark Gold Room, appetizers and cash bar                       Patrick Knavel, Will Caldwell*, Sarah Swanson, Delaney
                                                                      Vinson, Briana Kremer, Jenna DiFalco, Angela Matz, Debbie
    Breeding biology                                                  Nigro & Melanie Flamme
    Small-scale breeding site fidelity of Dusky Canada Geese
    Tasha DiMarzio, Michael Petrula & Jason Schamber                  Sex and adrenal steroid hormones in alcid feathers
                                                                      Alexis Will, Ruokun Zhou, Katherine Wynne-Edwards, &
    Remote monitoring of waterbird nests: an examination              Alexander Kitaysky
    of effectiveness, predators, and applicability
    Sarah Hoepfner*, Chris Latty & Shiloh Schulte                     Migration & movements
                                                                      Model-prediction of Great Gray Owl distribution in
    Downy dust to better inform nest fate assignments                 Alaska with ‘cloud computing’ tools for assessment of
    Laura Makielski, Christopher Latty & Tuula Hollmén                habitat
                                                                      Phillip Andrews* & Falk Huettmann
    Status and nest survival of Aleutian and Arctic Terns
    breeding in the Kodiak Archipelago, 2016–2018                     Using stable isotopes to infer migration routes of
    Jill E.Tengeres, Robin M. Corcoran & Donald E. Lyons              Crested Auklets
                                                                      Carl Burnside*, Alexis Will & Alexander Kitaysky
    Conservation & management
    Hypereumelanistic Horned Grebe observed in                        Resolving the annual pelagic distribution of Tufted
    eastern interior Alaska                                           Puffins in the Gulf of Alaska: preliminary isotopic
    Mark Bertram & Adam Grimm                                         correlates of winter and summer marine habitat use
                                                                      Kristen B. Gorman, Mary Anne Bishop & Anne L. Schaefer
    Wintering assemblage of Arctic-type warblers in the
    Philippines                                                       Migratory dynamics of Beringian Dunlin along the East
    Kyle K. Campbell, Aurora Hoefferle, Bennett Wong &                Asian-Australasian Flyway
    Kevin Winker                                                      Benjamin Lagassé*, Richard Lanctot, Stephen Yezerinac,
                                                                      Stephen Brown, Alexei Dondua, Chris Latty, Joe Liebezeit,
    Alaska Shorebird Conservation Plan, Version III                   Alexander Matsyna, Ekaterina Matsyna, Rebecca McGuire,
    Christopher M. Harwood, H. River Gates, James A.                  Martin Robards, Jon Slaght, Diana Solovyeva, Pavel
    Johnson, Richard B. Lanctot & Daniel R. Ruthrauff                 Tomkovich, Olga Valchuk & Michael Wunder
    Ruddy Duck breeding range expansion in Alaska                     Outreach & citizen science
    Bryce Lake                                                        Sitka winter bird observation project
    Increases in numbers of brood-rearing and molting                 Gwen Baluss, Kitty LaBounty & Matt Goff
    Brant and Snow Geese on the western Beaufort Sea                  Mt. Everest downhill: a watershed analysis during
    coast of Alaska, 1994–2017                                        climate change using waterbird counts from a 30-year
    Robert M. Burgess, Tim Obritschkewitsch, Brian T. Person          citizen science survey in Koshi River, Nepal
    & Robert J. Ritchie                                               Falk Huettmann
    When the freezer breaks: will climate warming impact              Arctic Refuge Virtual Bird Festival: 2018, an inaugural
    the persistence of resident birds in Alaska?                      year
    Emily Williams & Laura Phillips                                   Allyssa Morris, Chris Latty, Brett Parks, Sara Boario, Rose
    Capitalizing on a mass mortality event: archiving                 Primmer, Rebecca Sentner, Michelle LeBeau, Susan Culliney,
    seabird genetic samples, skins, and skeletons from the            Max Goldman, Ben Sullender, Kassandra Smith & Shiloh
    M/V Selendang Ayu oil spill                                       Schulte
    Jack Withrow & Kevin Winker                                       Revised principles for conducting research in the Arctic
    Diet & physiology                                                 Sara Bowden, Chris Campbell, Renee Crain, Roberto
    Short-term concentration of triiodothyronine increases            Delgado, Martin Jeffries, Igor Kupnik, Meredith LaValley,
    as a result of cooling early in the life of Siala sialis chicks   Cynthia McOliver, Candace Nachman, John Pearce, Cheryl
    Nathan Cagwin*, Sharon E. Lynn, Michael D. Kern &                 Rosa & Amina Schartup
    Alexander Kitaysky
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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
Wednesday, March 6                                   11:15 a.m.
                                                                Is geographical prevalence of beak deformities related
            Westmark Gold Room
                                                                to patterns of genetic diversity in Northwestern Crows
                                                                in Alaska?
8:15–8:30 a.m.                                                  Lisa Pajot
Welcome and announcements
                                                                11:30 a.m.
                                                                Patterns in breeding population of Steller’s Eiders at
8:30–9:30 a.m.                                                  Utqiaġvik, Alaska, over a 28-year period
                         Invited speaker: Torre Jorgenson       Nathan Graff, Micah Miller, & Neesha Stellrecht
                         Past and projected trends in Alaska    11:45 a.m.
                         habitats stressed by rapid climate     Reproduction of Peregrine Falcons along the Colville
                         change                                 River, Alaska
                         Torre Jorgenson, Alaska                Ted Swem
                         Ecoscience. For over thirty years,
                         Torre has worked on ecology            12:00–1:30 p.m
                         and geomorphology studies
                         throughout Alaska, focusing            Lunch
                         on vegetation-soil-permafrost
                         interactions and ecological            Breeding biology cont.
                         impacts of human activities.           Chair: Dan Rizzolo
                                                                1:30 p.m.
9:30–10:00 a.m.                                                 Evaluating methods for determining nest predators of
Coffee break                                                    Common Eiders
                                                                Wilhelm L.Wiese, Christopher J. Latty, & Tuula Hollmén
Breeding biology                                                1:45 p.m.
Chair: Chris Harwood                                            Nesting study of Greater White-fronted Geese at a
10:00 a.m.                                                      new drill site in NPR-A
Not too hot, not too cold: How adaptable are                    Kristen Rozell, Rick Johnson, & Adrian Gall
shorebirds to variable breeding conditions?
Rebecca McGuire, Richard Lanctot, Sarah Saalfeld, Dan           Migration and movements
Ruthrauff, Chris Latty, and Stephen Brown                       2:00 p.m.
10:15 a.m.                                                      Movement patterns of Arctic-breeding shorebirds
Timing, breedingg propensity and chick growth of shorebirds     during post-breeding and southbound migration
at an Arctic site in Alaska: Does interannual variability in    Richard B. Lanctot, Sarah Saalfeld, Stephen Brown, Kyle
environmental conditions override potential mismatches?         Elliot, Jean-Francois Lamarre, Christopher Latty, Rebecca
Dan Ruthrauff & Aaron Gottesman                                 McGuire, & Daniel Ruthrauff

10:30 a.m.                                                      2:15 p.m.
Influence of weather on reproductive timing and                 Linear features affect migratory movements of Golden
reproductive success in two Arctic-breeding passerines          Eagles
Helen Chmura, Natalie Boelman, Laura Gough, & John Wingfield    Joseph M. Eisaguirre*, Travis L. Booms, Christopher P. Barger,
                                                                Stephen B. Lewis, Carol L. McIntyre, & Greg A. Breed
10:45 a.m.
Mew Gull nesting: spatial distribution and survival in an       2:30 p.m.
urban environment on Fort Wainwright, Alasak                    Movements of younger cohorts of pre-breeding Golden
Garrett Savory & Emily Richmond                                 Eagles during the breeding season in Alaska
                                                                Carol McIntyre & Stephen B. Lewis
11:00 a.m.
Spectacled Eiders on the Colville Delta, Kuparuk oilfield       2:45 p.m.
and NPR-A                                                       Movement strategies among Bald Eagles in an
Rick Johnson, Julie Parrett, Lauren Attanas, Pam Seiser, John   anadromous fish system
Shook, & Bob Burgess                                            Rachel E. Wheat & Stephen B. Lewis
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Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
3:00–3:30 p.m.                                                           Thursday, March 7
    Coffee break                                                             Westmark Gold Room

    Diet & physiology                                             8:15–8:30 a.m.
    Chair: Brandt Meixell                                         Welcome and announcements
    3:30 p.m.
    Gyrfalcon dietary plasticity in a changing tundra             8:30–9:30 a.m.
    ecosystem
    Devin Johnson*, Michael Henderson, David L. Anderson,                                  Invited speaker: Chris Arp
    Travis Booms, Bryce Robinson, & Cory T. Williams                                       A story of the cold: do migratory
                                                                                           birds care?
    3:45 p.m.
    Diet and reproductive success of the Great Horned                                    Chris Arp, University of
    Owl at its northern breeding limit                                                   Alaska Fairbanks, Water and
    Madison McConnell* & Knut Kielland                                                   Environmental Research Center.
                                                                                         Chris’ research on ice and water
    4:00 p.m.                                                                            balance dynamics of shallow
    Characterizing Arctic shorebird chick diets with DNA          lakes and surface-water interactions with permafrost has
    metabarcoding                                                 documented important changes to lakes in Alaska’s Arctic.
    Danielle Gerik, Richard B. Lanctot, Kirsty E. Gurney, Sarah
    T. Saalfeld, & J. Andrés López                                9:30–10:00 a.m.
    4:15 p.m.                                                     Coffee break
    The interactive effects of temperature and organic
    contaminants on embryo development in shorebirds              Special session– Loon ecology & conservation
    Ella Lunny*, Kirsty Gurney, Dan Ruthrauff, & Christy          Chair: Mel Flamme
    Morrissey
                                                                  10:00 a.m.
    4:30 p.m.                                                     Genetic diversity among four loon species nesting in
    How will climate change affect the nutrient                   Arctic Alaska
    dynamics of goose forage in the Arctic?                       Barbara J. Pierson, George K. Sage, Meg C. Gravley, Jolene R.
    Brandt W. Meixell & Paul L. Flint                             Rearick, Brian D. Uher-Koch, Joel A. Schmutz, Melanie Flamme,
                                                                  Angela Matz, Debbie Nigro, Dave Evers, & Sandra L. Talbot
    4:45 p.m.
    Modeling wind exposure: implications for Common               10:15 A.M.
    Eiders nesting along the Arctic coastal plain                 Population genetics analysis of Yellow-billed Loons nesting
    Elyssa Watford*, Christopher Latty, & Tuula Hollmén           in western Arctic North America
                                                                  Sandra L.Talbot, George K. Sage, Barbara J. Pierson, Meg C.
                                                                  Gravley, Brian Uher-Koch, Joel Schmutz, Angela Matz, Debora
                             Public lecture: Cole                 Nigro, & Melanie Flamme
                             Sartore
                             7:00–9:00 p.m.                       10:30 A.M.
                             UAF Murie Auditorium                 eDNA metabarcoding analyses of loon (gavia)
                                                                  distribution and diet
                             Building the National                Damian Menning, Melanie Flamme, Trey Simmons, Brian
                             Geographic Photo Ark                 Uher-Koch, Joel Schmutz, & Sandra Talbot
                          Creating portraits of an
                          estimated 12,000 species of             10:45 A.M.
                          birds, mammals, fish, reptiles,         Similar, but different: use of marine resources by
    amphibians and invertebrates from around the globe            sympatrically breeding Red-throated and Pacific Loons
    before they disappear– get people to care while               Daniel Rizzolo & Joel Schmutz
    there’s still time.                                           11:00 A.M.
    This free public lecture is brought to you by Alaska          Territory retention of Pacific and Yellow-billed Loons
    Bird Conference 2019 & Arctic Audubon Society.                breeding in northern Alaska
8                                                                 Brian D. Uher-Koch, Kenneth G. Wright, & Joel A. Schmutz
Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
11:15 A.M.                                                         2:45 P.M.
Occupancy and habitat use of loon populations in Arctic            Connecting people throughout the East Asian-
and western Arctic Alaska                                          Australasian Flyway with coordinated outreach
Jeremy Mizel, Melanie Flamme, Debbie Nigro, Cindy Hamfler,         Casey T. Burns
Angela Matz, Tamara Zeller, Nikki Guldager, Josh Schmidt,
Stacia Backensto, Sarah Swanson, & Jared Hugey                     3:00–3:30 P.M.
11:30 A.M.                                                         Coffee break
Yellow-billed Loon occupancy of breeding territories near
new oil development                                                Special session– Boreal wetland birds
Rick Johnson, Ann Wildman, Alex Prichard, Julie Parrett, &         Chair: Katie Christie
Caryn Rea
                                                                   3:30 P.M.
11:45 A.M.                                                         Recent trends in boreal wetland-associated birds
Seasonal survival of Yellow-billed Loons                           breeding in Alaska and beyond
Joel A. Schmutz, Jeffrey S. Fair, Kenneth G. Wright, Christopher   Colleen M. Handel, Katie Christie, & John R. Sauer
R. DeSorbo, Daniel M. Mulcahy, Daniel J. Rizzolo, Brian D.
Uher-Koch, Barbara J. Pierson, and David C. Douglas                3:45 P.M.
                                                                   Influence of wetland context on the distribution and
                                                                   abundance of boreal birds
12:00–1:30 p.m                                                     Sabre Hill* & Audrey Taylor
Lunch
                                                                   4:00 P.M.
                                                                   Migratory connectivity of a declining shorebird:
1:30–2:00 p.m.
                                                                   tracking technologies reveal migratory pathways,
                          Invited speaker: Nancy Fresco            primary stopovers, and wintering locations of adult
                          Publicly available data tools to track   Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes)
                          climate change                           Laura McDuffie*, Katie Christie, Jim Johnson, & Audrey
                                                                   Taylor
                       Nancy Fresco, University of Alaska
                       Fairbanks, Scenarios Network for            4:15 P.M.
                       Alaska + Arctic Planning. Nancy’s           Neotropical migrant bird habitat assessment, Fort
                       focuses are on developing effective         Wainwright, Alaska
                       collaborations, linking SNAP data           Justin Smith, Garrett Savory, & Kim Jochum
to the needs of stakeholders, and interpreting the results of
complex modeling efforts.                                          4:30 P.M.
                                                                   Shorebird abundance estimates on military lands in
                                                                   interior Alaska
Outreach & citizen science
                                                                   Ellen Martin, Kim Jochum, Calvin Bagley, & Paul F.
2:00 p.m.                                                          Doherty, Jr.
The Alaska Swallow Monitoring Network: “dispersing”
across the state
Tricia Blake, Melissa Cady, Audrey Taylor, April Harding Scurr,       Banquet & awards
& Alex Rose                                                           6:30–9:00 p.m.
2:15 P.M.                                                             Westmark Gold Room
Piloting community science: monitoring murre                          Keynote speaker: Cole Sartore has been assisting
reproductive success in Savoonga, Alaska                              his father, photographer Joel Sartore, build the
Jennifer Curl, Punguk Shoogukwruk, & Alexis Will                      Photoark for 12 years. The Sartores hope to
                                                                      capture a brief moment within each species life,
2:30 P.M.
                                                                      to tell its story, and to inspire awareness and care
The Denali Avian Youth Mentoring Program: fostering
life-long connections with Alaska’s National Parklands                for the incredible beauty in Earth’s biodiversity.
through place-based science learning                                  The PhotoArk team has already traveled to 40
Emily Williams, Carol McIntyre, & Laura Phillips                      countries and predict it will take 25 years to
                                                                      complete their mission.
*Indicates a student presentation                                                                                            9
Alaska Bird Conference - 2019 Program March 4-8 Fairbanks, Alaska www.alaskabirdconference.org
Friday, March 8
                Westmark Yukon Room

     Workshop: Unmanned aerial systems in wildlife research & conservation
     9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
     •   What are the capabilities of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS, aka drones)?
     •   What types of data can a UAS provide?
     •   What regulations apply to the operation of a UAS in Alaska?
     •   How have UAS been used in ornithological research?
     •   How are the images obtained by a UAS turned into data?
     The answers to these questions and more will be covered during this one-day workshop. Offered in
     collaboration with the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI), topics covered will
     include current platforms and payloads, as well as approaches to data processing.
     Applications to research on wildlife and wildlife habitats, with a focus on bird studies, will be presented by
     researchers with extensive experience with UAS technology.
     ACUASI is a world-class research center for unmanned aircraft systems that provides integration of unique
     payloads and support for mission within government and science communities, with a special emphasis on the
     Arctic and sub-Arctic.
     Registration is $50 and participation is limited.

     Featuring speaker: David Bird
     David Bird is an Emeritus Professor of Wildlife
     Biology at McGill University and Director of the
     Avian Science and Conservation Centre In addition
     to his extensive background in ornithology, he
     is also an expert in the application of UAVs to
     wildlife research and conservation.
     He is also the Founding Editor of a newly
     launched peer-reviewed publication, the Journal of
     Unmanned Vehicle Systems and sits on the board
     of Unmanned Systems Canada, an organization
     dedicated to the use of unmanned vehicles.
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Notes

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Alaska Bird Conference Sponsors
     Thank you for your support!

       USGS- Alaska Science Center, US Fish & Wildlife Service, BLM-Arctic District Office, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, ConocoPhillips
                                 Alaska, National Park Service-Arctic Network Inventory & Monitoring Program

                                                                                                            In memory of
                                                                                                           Susan J.Watson

        BLM-Alaska State Office, City of Fairbanks Hotel-Motel Discretionary Fund, Arctic Audubon Society, Audubon Alaska, Delcourt Aviation,
                                                  Alaska Airlines, Zeiss, In memory of Susan J. Watson

      Institute of Arctic Biology, ABR, Inc., Ducks Unlimited Alaska, Kinross/Ft. Knox,Wildlife Conservations Society, Northern Alaska Tour Company

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