St. Helena Island supports nationally significant populations of northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis), Thayer’s gull (Larus thayeri) and High Arctic brant (Branta bernicla hrota), as well as locally important numbers of other species including common eiders (Somateria mollissima borealis) and black guillemots (Cepphus grylle). To contribute to the understanding of seabird populations, Canadian Wildlife Service and partners conducted colony surveys on St. Helena Island, Nunavut, from 2002 to 2007. Each summer, ECCC conducted a daily count of all bird species observed on the island, both at terrestrial sites and during scans of the polynya.

The crew (2 - 4 people) landed and surveyed the island systematically on foot. This involved walking all shorelines and lowlands on the small islands, and scanning scree slopes and cliffs, to give complete coverage. All breeding birds (as indicated by birds on nests, or the presence of eggs) were recorded, and where breeding was not confirmed, individual counts of each species were noted. In 2003 and 2004, ground surveys on St. Helena Island were restricted to minimize disturbance of the nesting birds that were part of focal research, that is, observers not want to increase the chance that birds monitored for long-term study would abandon due to disturbance. Instead, the island was split into irregular sections (e.g. 25 × 40 m, varying due to terrain) which were counted from blinds or discreet locations using 10× binoculars or 60× spotting scopes (Mallory & Gilchrist 2005).

This dataset includes the seabird colony surveys conducted by CWS and one of the first census done on St. Helena Island by Nettleship in 1973 (Nettleship 1974).

More details are available in downloaded metadata file.

CWS-North UniqueID: 032