Publications

No abstract available.

The long-term decline of the American woodcock (Scolopax minor) population led us to investigate diurnal habitat use with radiotelemetry on the wintering grounds. Sites included the coastal plain of Georgia (1989-1991), South Carolina (1988-1989), and Virginia (1991-1992). Habitat use was not explained by age, sex, or date during the winter, but individuals used habitat differently (P 0...

Mining and smelting at Kellogg-Smelterville, Idaho, resulted in high concentrations of lead in Coeur d'Alene (CDA) River sediments and the floodplain downstream, where American Kestrels (Falco sparverius), Northern Harriers (Circus cyaneus), Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus), and Western Screech-owls (Otus kennicotti) nested. Nestling American...

Based on banding recoveries, an estimated 89.5% of American kestrels (Falco sparverius) nesting in eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Idaho (excluding the Snake River Plain) are migratory and primarily migrate to western Mexico for the winter. Band recoveries from Mexico may be biased; however, we do not know whether the bias is toward more or fewer recoveries. The banding data...

Reproductive success and contaminant levels in 1986 and 1987 were compared between Barn Swallows nesting at selenium-contaminated Martin Lake, Texas, USA, and swallows nesting at a reference site. Nests were initiated about the same time or earlier at Martin Lake than at the reference site and clutch size was similar between the two locations. Nest success was significantly higher at...

No abstract available.

Our purpose here is to emphasize the need to properly deal with sampling variance when studying population variability and to present a means of doing so. We present an estimator for temporal variance of population size for the general case in which there are both sampling variances and covariances associated with estimates of population size. We illustrate the estimation approach with a...

Radio transmitters were attached to American Woodcock (scolopax minor) at three Atlantic coastal sites to monitor winter movements and spring departure dates from Georgia (1982-1984, 1989-1991), South Carolina (1988-1989), and Virginia (1991-1992). There was no evidence of temperature, sex, or age-dependent migration dates. Migration was coincident with the full moon in February and the...

The North American Breeding Bird Survey monitors changes in bird populations through time using annual counts at fixed survey sites. The usual method of estimating trends has been to use the logarithm of the counts in a regression analysis. It is contended that this procedure is reasonably satisfactory for more abundant species, but produces biased estimates for less abundant species. An

Snowy Egret (Egretta thula) and Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax) nestlings from colonies in Texas, Rhode Island, and California and Great Egret (Casmerodius albus) nestlings from Texas were examined for eustrongylidosis, or infection by the parasitic nematode Eustrongylides spp. In 31% (24/77) of all broods examined, at least one nestling was infected. Snowy Egret broods...

Fifteen juvenile Puerto Rican Parrots (Amazona vittata) from wild nests in 1985, 1986 and 1987 were radio monitored an average of 110 +- 15.9 (SE) d (range 4-209 d) post-fledgling. Minimum survival was 67% (n = 3) in 1985, 100% (n = 4) in 1986 and 43% (n = 7) in 1987. Most mortality (three of five deaths) occurred during the first 35 d following fledgling. A major cause of mortality was...

We encountered 150 land birds representing 14 families along the cruise track of the Soviet Oceanographic Research Vessel AKADEMlK KOROLEV in the South China Sea. We saw most of these birds during a 3 -day period in a small area c. 350 km southeast of the southern tip of the Indo-China peninsula. These observations suggest that a significant land bird migration corridor crosses the South...