JPLayers 1978 Journal NARL→Atkasook on the Meade River, North Slope Borough, Alaska 16 June cont'd The flight was uneventful. We flew at 300' the whole way, allowing me to 10 occasional birds. Scaftued Nyctea to ~30 mile south of Barrow. One pair of Somateria fuscata just south of the Gao Well at Barrow. Pluvialis squatarola just north of the Jnau River. Melt-off virtually complete, save for a few isolated snowbanks in bluffs areas. Water receding in all rivers; the water has also cleared markedly, no longer a silky mud brown. Almost all lakes are melted, except a few large ones. Last flight I was struck by the very curious distribution of ice- melt: 2 adjacent ponds of seemingly identical size might differ widely in ice melt, one ice-free, the other still solid. Atkasook on the Meade, North Slope Borough, Alaska 4/16 June (cont'd) Arrived ~11am + had immediate confrontation with Vogel re sampling effort. Potentially resolved by 1400. I spent afternoon preparing pack frames for new boards, etc., and then went out at 1700 and again at 2100 to return old boards from Insect Transects A+B. Temperature warm (8°C), partially cloudy with long periods of sun, and a diminishing wind which had been running an excess of 25mph for 2 days from E. The sticky boards were largely empty, although the ones in low wet habitat were accumulating small numbers of muscid flies, some mycetophilidae, lirigid and pardoid spiders, I had hundreds of collembola. None had collected any bugs but even though bees are one of the few conspicuously active insects now. Re birds see 17 June entry — I'll wait. 17 June Off to run transects 6-10 by 0630. Began 10 at 0710. Temp: 3°C, partially cloudy (20%), moderate E wind blowing ~10mph. Finished transects at 1430, back to camp by 1500. 1100 collected boards from Insect Transects C. 2000 flew to Barrow. By evening it was raining intermittently at Atkasook. The wind never abated during the day, and the temperature rose to ~6°C by mid-afternoon. Bird activity is generally lower, both compared to my last visit (10 June) and to last year. This is better reflected in the transect summaries and also qualitatively. Below is a summary of my qualitative impressions after today's transects + yesterday's meanderings: