Gull and Tern Breeding Colonies on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: 1986-2010

Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories is one of the most important areas for inland breeding gulls and terns (larids) in northern Canada. Numerous rocky islands on the North Arm provide breeding habitat for a number of colonially-nesting larid species. Great Slave Lake is the only known breeding site for Caspian Terns in the Northwest Territories and the North Arm is the northernmost known breeding range for the species in North America. Given its importance to a variety of migrating, nesting and staging birds, various portions of the area have been recognized as; a Key Migratory Bird Terrestrial Habitat site, an Important Bird Area, and an International Biological Program site.

This dataset contains results from surveys of active larid breeding colonies from between 1986 and 2010 on the portion of the North Arm west of Yellowknife. Most data were collected through ground surveys, with travel by boat, between mid June to early July. Information recorded at each colony included species, numbers of nests, clutch size, presence of chicks, and habitat characteristics (vegetation cover).

The majority of larid colonies were located on islands along the northeastern shoreline. The southwest shoreline saw limited use by nesting larids due to the reduced number and different characteristics of the islands in that area. The most regularly occurring species were Herring Gull, Mew Gull, Ring-billed Gull, California Gull, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, and Caspian Tern.

Results of these surveys have been published in the report “Gull and Tern Breeding Colonies on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: 1986-2010 (Woodard, Fournier, and Robertson, 2013).

Woodard, P.F., M.A. Fournier, and M.O. Wiebe Robertson. 2013. Gull and Tern Breeding Colonies on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories: 1986-2010. Technical Report Series No. 526, Canadian Wildlife Service, Yellowknife, NT.

More details are available in the metadata document for download.

CWS-North DatasetID: 071_0

Simple

Date ( RI_366 )
2026-03-27
Date ( RI_367 )
2026-05-14
RI_409
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Canadian Wildlife Service - Northern Region Data Management
Status
completed; complété RI_593
Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded; auBesoin RI_540
Keywords ( RI_528 )
  • bird
  • gull
  • tern
  • breeding
  • survey
  • colonial nesting
  • waterbird
Keywords ( RI_525 )
  • Great Slave Lake
  • Northwest Territories
  • island
  • CWS Northern Region
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
  • Northern Canada
  • Birds
Business Functions Fonctions de l'entreprise ( RI_528 )
  • Assess Status of Species
  • Protect Species Well-Being
Environment Canada - GC Security Classification Environment Canada - GC Security Classification ( RI_528 )
  • Unclassified
Environment Canada - Program Environment Canada - Program ( RI_528 )
  • 1.1.3. Migratory Birds
ECCC ISO Countries EN ECCC ISO Countries FR ( RI_528 )
  • Canada
ECCC Government Titles EN ECCC Government Titles FR ( RI_528 )
  • Environment and Climate Change Canada
Use limitation
Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)
Access constraints
license; licence RI_606
Use constraints
license; licence RI_606
Spatial representation type
vector; vecteur RI_635
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Metadata language
fra; CAN
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Biota
Begin date
1986-06-23
End date
2010-07-02
N
S
E
W
thumbnail


Reference system identifier
https://epsg.io / EPSG:4269 /
Distribution format
  • CSV ( unknown )

  • TXT ( unknown )

  • FGDB/GDB ( n/a )

  • KMZ ( unknown )

RI_409
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Canadian Wildlife Service - Northern Region Data Management
OnLine resource
View ECCC Data Mart (English) ( HTTPS )

Web Service;HTML;eng,fra

OnLine resource
View ECCC Data Mart (French) ( HTTPS )

Web Service;HTML;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Data_Dictionary_Dictionaire_Données.csv ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Clutch_Data_Données_Couvée.csv ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Species_Codes_Espèces.csv ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Lookups_Recherches.csv ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Metadata_Métadonnée.txt ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;TXT;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Site_Description_Data_Données_Descriptives_Site.csv ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Site_Summary_Data_Données_Récapitulatives_Site.csv ( HTTPS )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Site_Description_Data_Données_Descriptives_Site.kmz ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;KMZ;eng

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Relevés.gdb.zip ( HTTPS )

Dataset;FGDB/GDB;eng,fra

OnLine resource
North_Arm_Larid_Surveys_Site_Summary_Data_Données_Récapitulatives_Site.kmz ( HTTPS )

Supporting Document;KMZ;eng,fra

File identifier
2b723d36-fd40-42fe-9031-8fd0c857214c XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2026-05-14T20:28:29.152802Z
Metadata standard name
North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
RI_409
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Canadian Wildlife Service - Northern Region Data Management
 
 

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