Sand dunes disappear with more frequent and powerful storms in Western Alaska. These storms have impacted bird nesting grounds and tundra plants.
Dead birds suspected to have died from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza have been found on Kigigak Island and Tutakoke River in Alaska, with other bird species displaying unusual behaviors.
"Since about May 25, crews have been seeing multiple species showing what we believe are signs of highly pathogenic avian influenza. The signs we are seeing widespread is a headshaking that we equate to "getting the cobwebs out", like a person may do when they first wake up. This behavior occurs regularly every couple minutes. This behavior has been observed in: black brant, cackling geese, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin, lapland longspurs, spectacled eiders, emperor geese, greater white-fronted geese, sabines gulls, glaucous gulls, and red-necked phalaropes."
This video shot on Thursday May 19th, shows the erratic circling behavior of a Canada goose. Although the cause is unknown, this type of behavior is according to USGS, "highly suggestive" of an infection with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).
Residents of Chevak and Hooper Bay found two species of sea bird either dead or approachable near the mouth of the Kiuqliiviq and Aprun rivers near fish camps. Residents of Hooper Bay also found a dead sea mammal on the beach.
Ross's gull (Rhodostetia rosea) spotted in Hooper Bay, south of normal species range.
For decades, the crowds of small, dark sea geese on the tundra of southwestern Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta have been thinning, a situation opposite that of geese on the North Slope.
Black brant populations are struggling in the species' once-dominant Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta breeding areas, but conditions are better for brant breeding on the Arctic coastline.
Identification pending.
The bird was flying and just dropped dead.
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