The Spectacled Recovery Plan identified annual nesting surveys as the primary method to assess recovery status for Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) subpopulation. In addition to documenting population status for spectacled eiders, the survey provides annual information on egg production, nesting effort, phenology, and habitat use for three other focal species including cackling geese, emperor geese, and greater white-fronted geese. Numbers of nests of the four species are stable or increasing in the short-term (2007-2016) and long-term (1985-2016). In 2016, the estimated number of spectacled eider nests (9,464) was the second highest in the history of the survey, but nest success was poor and clutch size very low. Rates of growth in numbers of spectacled eider nests indicate increasing populations in the short-term and stable over the long-term. Cackling geese and greater white-fronted geese produced high numbers of nests and eggs but nest success was fair to poor and clutch sizes low to very low. Emperor geese produced low numbers of nests and eggs, had poor nest success and very low clutch sizes. Nest initiation and hatching dates in 2016 were among the earliest since the study began. The significant trend of earlier nesting suggests a response to advancing dates of spring conditions with waterfowl now hatching a week earlier than in the 1980s.
