Cold Ducks in the Sunrise

The year's first sunrise on the Arctic Ocean?

No, although it felt rather like it. This is Lake Michigan at Waukegan Beach. But despite the conditions, there were ducks around:

Red-breasted Merganser (Mergus serrator), Waukegan Beach, Lake Co, IL  2/9/2014

I'm not sure what this Red-breasted Merganser was doing a hundred yards or more from open water, but he seemed alert enough.

White-winged Scoter (Melanitta fusca), Waukegan Beach, Lake Co, IL  2/9/2014

This White-winged Scoter was well up on the ice, as well.


Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis), Waukegan Beach, Lake Co, IL  2/9/2014

This Long-tailed Duck was one of four working the edge of the ice, just offshore. Most winters, we have to be satisfied with long-distance scope views.

 

 

Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), Waukegan Beach, Lake Co, IL  2/9/2014

Greater Scaup (Aythya marila), Waukegan Beach, Lake Co, IL  2/9/2014

These two were also being remarkably cooperative.

These birds belong to 5 genera in two different tribes of the family Anatidae (that's ducks and geese). Collectively, the birds in these tribes are often called "sea ducks" because they like to winter on big water. (The Scaup is in the tribe Aythini, which are sometimes called "bay ducks" instead.) In most places, that means the ocean, but we're lucky enough to have our own miniature ocean here in Chicago, so we get to look for them all winter long.

Waukegan Harbor is a fairly industrial area, although there's a nice strip of dunes behind the beach. With close to 50% of the world's population living close to the ocean, and 90% of international trade moving on 100,000 commercial vessels, the industrialization of our oceans is an accomplished fact. So how do ducks deal with all those ships? Schwemmer, et al. found that sea ducks tended to avoid ships when offshore, with the effect varying by species. They also found some habituation, but pointed out that it wouldn't be expected except in confined waters with high traffic. (1) Larsen and Laubeck found similar effects of ferry disturbance in Danish waters. (2) On the other hand, De La Cruz, et al. found that ducks in San Francisco bay appeared to prefer areas on ferry routes, although they pointed out that this is probably the result of overlap of the ferry routes with food resources. (3) Schwemmer, et al. suggested that ships should, where possible, be routed through particular areas to avoid fragmentation of habitat and to allow some habituation.

Given the push to develop offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy resources, Furness, et al. did some modeling to examine the potential effects of such developments on marine birds. They found that tidal turbines probably posed the greatest threats to ducks, with wind development likely to be the least. (4,5) They also found, however, that more aerial seabirds (Gannetts, Gulls, etc.) were more likely to have problems with wind turbines. (5)

These last two studies don't address the issue of habitat loss due to climate change, especially in the fast-warming Arctic, so they don't provide means for evaluating the relative impacts of continuing to rely on fossil fuels for energy versus offshore developments. However, all of these studies should remind us that our global economy, for all of it's wonders, does come with prices, and that many of them are paid by other creatures.

(1) Schwemmer, P., Mendel, B., Sonntag, N., Dierschke, V., & Garthe, S. (2011). Effects of ship traffic on seabirds in offshore waters: implications for marine conservation and spatial planning. Ecological Applications, 21(5), 1851-1860.

 

(2) Larsen, J. K., & Laubek, B. (2013). Impacts of high-speed ferry disturbance on wintering sea ducks. Wildfowl, 55(55), 99-116.

 

(3) De La Cruz, S. E., Eadie, J. M., Keith Miles, A., Yee, J., Spragens, K. A., Palm, E. C., & Takekawa, J. Y. (2014). Resource selection and space use by sea ducks during the non-breeding season: Implications for habitat conservation planning in urbanized estuaries. Biological Conservation, 169, 68-78.

 

(4) Furness, R. W., Wade, H. M., Robbins, A. M., & Masden, E. A. (2012). Assessing the sensitivity of seabird populations to adverse effects from tidal stream turbines and wave energy devices. ICES Journal of Marine Science: Journal du Conseil, 69(8), 1466-1479.

 

(5) Furness, R. W., Wade, H. M., & Masden, E. A. (2013). Assessing vulnerability of marine bird populations to offshore wind farms. Journal of environmental management, 119, 56-66.