American Goshawk (Accipiter atricapillus) Surveys in Northern Alaska.

Late successional forest, which is typical nesting habitat for American Goshawks (Accipiter atricapillus), is predicted to decline across Interior Alaska due to climate change. This change in forest structure may affect nesting populations of goshawks. We conducted broadcast acoustical surveys for goshawks during the summers in 2011–2014 on Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge in northern Alaska to: (1) determine whether goshawks occur on the refuge during the breeding season; (2) assess the relative abundance and distribution of goshawks along some rivers on the refuge; and (3) develop a repeatable survey protocol appropriate for monitoring goshawks in a remote Arctic environment. We modified techniques presented in the Northern Goshawk Inventory and Monitoring Technical Guide to suit the refuge environment by surveying along rivers. We elicited 34 responses from goshawks during the 4 yr of surveys. The maximum number of goshawk responses on the refuge in any year was 12. The mean nearest neighbor distance between stations along the linear river routes where goshawks responded in any single year was 5.9 ± 6.8 km. We detected goshawks along rivers on the refuge during every survey event and found that our survey method was successful in this challenging environment. To our knowledge this was the first attempt to survey goshawks in Arctic Alaska. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]