Nesting ecology of White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca deglandi) at Redberry Lake, Saskatchewan

Population surveys indicate a trend of declining abundance of scoters (Melanitta spp.) in North America. Little is known about changes in life-history traits that may be responsible for the recent population decline of White-winged Scoters (Melanitta fusca deglandi). Therefore, we studied nesting ecology of White-winged Scoters at Redberry Lake, Saskatchewan, during the summers of 2000-2001. We found 198 nests and examined nest-site selection by comparing habitat features of successful nests, depredated nests, and random sites. Discriminant function analysis differentiated habitat features-measured at hatch-of successful nests, deprecated nests, and random sites; lateral (r = 0.66) and overhead (r = 0.35) concealment were microhabitat variables most correlated with canonical discriminant functions. We also modeled daily survival rate of nests as a function of year, linear and quadratic trends with nest age, nest initiation date, and seven microhabitat variables. Nest survival from a time-constant model (i.e. Mayfield nest-success estimate) was 0.35 (95% CL: 0.27, 0.43). Estimates of nest success were lower than those measured at Redberry Lake in the 1970s and 1980s. Nest survival increased throughout the laying period and stabilized during incubation, and showed positive relationships with nest concealment and distance to water and a negative relationship with distance to edge. Considering those factors, a model-averaged estimate of nest survival was 0.24 (95% CL: 0.09, 0.42). We concluded that White-winged Scoters selected nesting habitat adaptively, because (1) successful sites were more concealed than depreciated sites; (2) nest sites (both successful and depredated) had higher concealment than random sites; and (3) nest sites were on islands, where success is greater than on the mainland.