Lee Tibbitts (Former Employee)

Mountain ranges, deserts, ice fields and oceans generally act as barriers to the movement of land-dependent animals, often profoundly shaping migration routes. We used satellite telemetry to track the southward flights of bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica baueri), shorebirds whose breeding and non-breeding areas are separated by the vast central Pacific Ocean. Seven females with...

Although North American geese are managed based on their breeding distributions, the dynamics of those breeding populations may be affected by events that occur during the winter. Birth rates of capital breeding geese may be influenced by wintering conditions, mortality may be influenced by timing of migration and wintering distribution, and immigration and emigration among breeding...

As part of the National Park Service’s Inventory and Monitoring Program, biologists from the U. S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center conducted an inventory of birds in montane regions of Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks and Preserves during 2004–2006. We used a stratified random survey design to allocate samples by ecological subsection. To survey for birds, we conducted...

The Alaska Science Center of the U.S. Geological Survey conducted an inventory of birds in montane areas of the four northern parks in the Arctic Network of National Parks, Alaska. This effort represents the first comprehensive assessment of breeding range and habitat associations for the majority of avian species in the Arctic Network. Ultimately, these data provide a framework upon...

We here report two anecdotes about avianinteractions relevant to the interpretation of differences in shorebirdhabitat use between day and night. Several studies have reported that shorebirds avoid feeding and roosting along nearshore areasat night yet commonly use these sites during daytime. This suggests that nighttime avoidance of nearshore places is a response to increased danger of...

We conducted pelagic seabird surveys in the Gambier and Tuamotu Archipelagos in the southeastern Pacific Ocean totaling 40 hours during 7-27 March 2003 and 22.5 hours during 22-27 July 2001. We used a 300-m-wide strip transect to estimate seabird density, and we estimated relative abundance of birds at all distances. In 2001, we observed a total of 326 birds of 18 species. The mean...