Habitat
Prenesting birds on the Y-K Delta concentrate on meltwater areas, slough banks, and river edges within 30 km of the Bering Sea (Campbell et al. 1990). Nests located in moderate to dense cover of grasses and sedges or dwarf shrubs (Mickelson 1975, Ely and Raveling 1984) in meltwater areas and lower edges of pingos (Campbell et al. 1990). More interior populations breed in alluvium lowlands on stream deltas, low sedge- cotton grass- moss meadows, tussock lowlands, tundra ponds with Carex aquatilis, Arctophila fulva emergent ecotone, taiga forests and bogs, raised polygon edges, hummocky ground, inland tributary stream edges, dwarf and occasionally tall- shrub tundra of birch and willow; and to a lesser extent , heath tundra, drier rock fields, eskers, hill slopes with Dryas spp., grasses and lichens (Tieszen 1978, Bird 1980, Chapin et al. 1992, R. Bromley unpubl. data).
References
Bird, B. J. 1980. The natural landscape of Canada, 2nd ed. John Wiley and Sons, Toronto, ON.
Campbell, R. W., N. K. Dawe, I. McTaggart-Cowan, J. M. Cooper, G. W. Kaiser, and M. C. E. McNall. 1990. The Birds of British Columbia. Vol. 1 and 2, Nonpasserines. UBC Press, Vancouver, B.C.
Chapin, F. S., R. L. Reynolds, J. F. Shaver, and G. R. Svoboda, eds. 1992. Arctic ecosystems in a changing climate: an ecophysiological perspective. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
Ely, C. R. and D. G. Raveling. 1984. Breeding biology of pacific White-fronted Geese. J. Wildl. Manage. 48: 823-837.
Mickelson, P. G. 1975. Breeding biology of cackling geese and associated species on the Yukon- Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska. Wildl. Monogr. 45.
Tieszen, L. L. 1978. Vegetation and production ecology of an Alaskan arctic tundra. Ecological Studies, vol. 29. Springer-Verlag, New York.
