SPMyers 1978 JOURNAL AtKasook on the Meade River, North Slope Borough, Alaska 29 August I'm back at Atkasook to gather in the crew. Shuford, Vogel + Johnston have been here all summer, except that Shuford was forced to leave a week ago when his father died. I flew in from NARE yesterday at noon, having reached Barrow the night before. My task is to corral the field units, cleanup camp, finish the sampling, and split. Yesterday I spent the afternoon cleaning camp. Then this am. I ran transects 1-4. The results are as I anticipated: precious few birds remain on the tundra. I saw 5 species of shorebird - Pluvialis dominica + P. squatarola, Calidris melanotos + C. alpina, + Phyllopus fulicarius + Ph. lobatus. All were juveniles. (see daily list for table) None were common. Alflden sampling 40 ha I recorded only 1 shorebird - a juvenile C. melanotos. The tundra is remarkably wet- remarkably at least, in comparison with the last several years. Many low center polygons still retain water. All are saturated in their centers. The river still has an appreciable breadth to it, being some 20m wide at camp. According to Vogel it has rained prodigiously here in the last week. That would probably account for most of the standing water, but all summer I've been getting reports from McCaffrey in Barrow that it has been a wet, cold August. The temperature this am while I sampled was pleasant - 8°C, almost no wind, puffy Mendel River clouds. But around 1300 a strong w wind picked up. I fear it portends a serious change in the weather, as large dark + fronty looking clouds are approaching from the west. We shall see how it develops (obviously). The most interesting ornithological note concerns the Gavia arctica - all 3 spp are cicing loudly + constantly - flying overhead, landing in flocks in the river, etc. Well, not all 3 spp are floating in the river - only arctica. But nonetheless all 3 are extraordinarily active.