Monitering af havternebestanden på Kitsissunnguit (Grønne Ejland) og den sydlige del af Disko Bugt, 2002-2004. Technical Report No. 62

This present report presents the results of three seasons of fieldwork (2002-2004) on the 
Arctic tern population of Kitsissunnguit in Disko Bay, West Greenland. An additionally 
14 minor tern colonies in the southern part of Disko Bay were furthermore surveyed each 
of the three years. 
Reliable population status estimates are difficult to obtain in Greenland as the species 
express a highly fluctuating breeding occurrence between years. The results from the 
fieldwork show that the Arctic tern population in Disko Bay express differences in 
breeding density between years in large colonies and that smaller colonies may not be 
used as breeding sites in certain years. 
In the report two different methods to estimate breeding population size on 
Kitsissunnguit is presented, where the line transect method is considered most suitable. 
As the timing of the start of the Arctic tern breeding cycle may differ considerately 
between years it is necessary to estimate just how advanced the breeding cycle is the 
given year before the actual counts is performed.

It is recommended that the colonies on Kitsissunnguit along with the southern part of 
Disko Bay is counted once yearly in the period 2005-2007 which will result in data on 
population size from eight continuous seasons. After 2007 counts every 5-8 year is 
estimated as appropriately in order to get a general population trend for the Arctic tern in 
West Greenland.