JPMayers 1975 Journal Transects 1,3,5 5 August (cont'd) Transect #1 was dead, as can be seen from the totals. Of interest along here was the fact that the 8th Mycra whose nest was near unit 18, and which has been hounding me during censuses for the last several weeks as far away as unit 15 or so, today began dive bombing as I climbed onto the ridge by unit 0. The 8 was unusually. In fact, during my last several censuses this 8 has been hunting down that for. I suspect that the chicks have worked their way along Gushing Ridge toward the 8's current area. It would not surprise me were their distribution causally related to the paucity of shorebirds - particularly in that I picked up 29 miles down near the unit site where I'd never had shorebirds. Transect 3 was interesting in that there was one alpina and gusilla juvenile. Yesterday while taking micro-habitat transects I had encountered a group of alpina's, gusilla, + fulicans at this place near where today's anomalies were. Could it be that the apparent specificity of alpina to moderately-high polygonized areas breaks down after chicks fledge? Could the chicks be less selective? To what extent was yesterday's warm weather responsible, in that it induced greater availability of surface insects? One item of particular interest is that despite the presence of gusilla in the littoral zone, particularly along the shore of the salt lagoon - there few individuals foraging on the tundra. Also it appears as if alpina is switching to the coast. A mot've weather - we were assaulted today by constantly changing conditions - the greatest flux since Tierra del Fuego: it would snow heavily for 5 minutes, only to have the sky erupt in brilliant sunshine, then more snow. IBP area 6 August spent much of today taking micro points. What a frustrating experience, of questionable utility. The points are real, usually, i.e. I think they reflect the habitat preferences of the spp. But there are many problems circumvented in their collection: first + foremost is the difficulty of finding a bird sufficiently cooperative to allow you to approach. Sometimes it is very difficult to be sure that a bird's position is not influenced by you - in fact many times it obviously is + therefore must be ignored, as in broody adults. Dunlins, for example, are now foraging in polygonated areas both in the lows + on the highs (troughs & polygons)