Telemetric observations were conducted on a pair of Sharp-Shinned Hawks (Accipiter striatus velox) nesting in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah in 1972. The movements of both adults were monitored from the time their eggs hatched in late June until they left the study area in early August, fourty-two days later. A transmitter was also attached to one of the young at the time of fledging. The adult's main hunting area was a single plant community located 1600 meters from the nest. The male performed the majority of the foraging while the female spent the greatest part of her time at the nest. Information on sixty-one Sharp-shinned Hawk nests in Utah was analyzed. The typical nest site was determined as being a small stand of coniferous trees present in a deciduous tree community. Sharp-shinned Hawks in southern Utah began nesting activities up to twenty days before the same species 350 miles away in northern Utah. Thirty-four nests averaged a clutch size of 4.3 eggs.

This paper reports the incidence and associations of four species of mites, Paraneonyssus icteridius, Ptilonyssus n. sp. "A", Sternostoma n. sp. "A" , and Speleognathus sp., found in the nasal cavities of the common red-wing blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus ssp.) and Brewer's blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus cyanocephalus Wagler) over-wintering in the vicinity of Provo, Utah County, Utah. Three species of mites are reported for the first time from these birds, and two of these three are undescribed species.

This paper deals with the life history and distribution of the Spurred Towhee (Pipilo erythropthalmus moutanus Swarth). Research was begun in April, 1955, and terminted in June, 1956. The preferred habitat of this bird is the mountain slopes, canyons. and streamsides covered with a shrubby type of vegetation, usually between 5,000 and 8,000 feet in elevation. Distribution of the Spurred Towhee is throughout the central Rocky Mountain region in the states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, western half of New Mexico, and into northern Mexico. During the winter these birds are found concentrated in the lower valleys along the streams in some areas and in the lower reaches of the foothills in others. In April the flocks disband and the birds pair and establish territories. There are three distinct songs or sounds made by the towhee, and two of these have been analyzed in detail by first tape recording them and then analyzing them on a sona-graph. Few data were assembled concerning territorialism, but it is thought to exist. The five nests found during this study were all robbed of either their eggs or young. They were constructed upon the ground, with an inner lining of dry grass and an outer shell of sagebrush bark or cedar bark. The four nests found in Utah County were all under sagebrush. The usual clutch size is four. The female does all the incubating and the male sings vigorously during this time. The growth rate of the young is rapid. Only the male feeds the young, at least during the first six days of nest life, while the female does all the brooding. June 9 was the earliest juvenile towhee, were observed out of the nest. The principal source of food, according to another worker, is insects, except during winter months. The ideal habitat where populatlons were found to be highest was in areas where the vegetation was clumped with intermittent open spaces. Size, density, and kind of cover seemed to be the most important factors affecting populations, while slope and exposure had only an indirect effect.

No description available.

In the early 1990's, a series of habitat changes caused by storms and subsequent beach management by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE, The Corps) provided a unique opportunity to study piping plover population dynamics in a changing environment. In this study, 1993-2004, we attempt to determine the factors that limit or influence the abundance and distribution of piping plovers in West Hampton Dunes (WHD), Long Island, NY, a renourished, highly developed, and high human disturbance area. The piping plover population on Westhampton Island increased after the hurricane of 1938, and declined thereafter. The decline co-occurred with beach development and vegetative succession. After storms in the winter of 1992-1993 breached the island at West Hampton Dunes, piping plovers re-colonized the area. The New York District USACE filled the breach in 1993, and renourished the beach in 1996 and 2000-2001. USACE renourished parts of the groinfield in Westhampton Beach in 1997. Each spring and summer, we monitored plovers intensively at WHD and part of the adjacent town of Westhampton Beach (The Reference Area) 1993-2004. We located nests and estimated reproductive and nest and chick survival rates. We monitored plover management efforts and determined causes of nest loss when possible. We monitored piping plover behaviors and obtained an index to plover food supply. We estimated area of plover habitats and defined areas unsuitable for piping plover nesting. We also obtained indices to human and predator presence on the beach. The WHD piping plover population increased from 0 pairs in 1992 to 39 in 2000 then decreased to 18 pairs in 2004. This decline was closely associated with changes in potential nesting habitat which increased from 22.4 ha in 1992 to 50.1 ha in 2000 then declined to 31.1 ha in 2004 The primary process regulating the WHD population appears to be density dependent immigration and emigration. No other vital rates (clutch size, renest rate, fertility, egg survival, nest survival, chick survival, brood survival, chicks fledged/pair) were correlated with density. The higher equilibrium density at WHD (~1 pair/ha) than at The Reference Area (~0.4 pair/ha) appeared to be a function of the large bay intertidal flats at WHD. The most common nest predators, cats (WHD = 13% of known predated nests), American Crows (17% of known predated nests) and foxes (37% of known predated nests), are newcomers to piping plover habitats. Thus, plovers may be especially vulnerable to them. Predator removal from the study area appeared to improve nest success and chick survival (R2 = 0.79). Predator exclosures at nests reduced nest loss (WHD = 34% exclosed nests lost vs. 43% of unexclosed nests lost, though in one year, one or more foxes learned to exploit plovers in exclosures (22% of all exclosed nests were predated by foxes in 1995). This study highlights the long suspected piping plover paradox: increasing beach width can temporarily raise the carrying capacity of an area, but preventing overwash can reduce or eliminate the natural formation of the bay side foraging flats that increase piping plover density, and sometimes, survival. Moreover, beach stabilization allows human development of the habitat which also reduces the carrying capacity of the environment for piping plovers, increases human/plover interactions, and attracts potential predators. / Ph. D.

The thesis is devoted to amateur ornithologists and their role in citizen science. In it's theoretical part it focuses mainly on citizen science, its features, history and present of ornithology and characterization of amateur ornithologist. The empirical part uses methods of qualitative research, which is based on semi-structured interviews with professional and amateur ornithologists who participate or deal with projects of citizen science. The research problem is formulated as follows: Amateur ornithologists, their role and involvement in civil science and cooperation with professional ornithologists from the perspective of both amateur and professional ornithologists. It uses a thematic analysis to process the interviews on which several topics are based, for example: amateur ornithologist and its concept, relationships between amateur and professional ornithologists and their cooperation, relationship of amateur ornithologists to nature, their self-education, citizen science from the perspective of amateur and professional ornithologists, data and their quality. Research suggests that the difference between amateurs and professionals lies mainly in their relationship to science, which affects other aspects of their relationship to each other and to citizen science.

Global agricultural intensification has caused large-scale wildlife declines, but agricultural lands that maintain natural habitats can support healthy wildlife populations and receive significant ecosystem services from these natural communities. However, how on-farm biodiversity results in beneficial ecosystem services is highly variable and is reported to differ among taxa and guilds. One group that has attracted attention for their potential beneficial role in reducing pest abundance are birds. Understanding the role of bird communities and individual species in pest control could be important for managing farms under a low intensity agroecological framework. In New England, farmers are increasingly applying low intensity agricultural practices, and these low intensity farms have high conservation value for bird communities. The value of bird communities to on-farm productivity, however, remains poorly understood. Therefore, we quantified the amount of insect pest control provided by birds to three important crops to New England farmers: brassicas (e.g., kale, broccoli), cucurbits (e.g., squash, cucumber), and Solanaceae (e.g., eggplant, potato). We also examined the role of different songbird species in the provision of pest control in this system. To determine the amount of pest control services provided by birds in this system, we conducted an exclusion experiment at nine low intensity farms in Franklin and Hampshire counties of Massachusetts. Birds were excluded from crops, and pest abundance and leaf damage were compared between exclusion plots and immediately adjacent control plots. In brassica crops, the abundance of imported cabbageworm (Pieris rapae) and diamondback moth (Plutella xylostella) were significantly reduced, while cabbage looper (Trichoplusia ni) was not significantly affected. In cucurbit crops, all life stages of squash bugs (Anasa tristis) were significantly reduced, though striped cucumber beetle (Acalymma vittatum) populations were not significantly changed. In Solanaceous crops, bird presence caused significantly larger populations of Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) larvae, while the other life stages of Colorado potato beetle and aphids (superfamily Aphidoidea) were not significantly affected. Leaf damage was reduced by bird presence in all three crop types, though this effect was only significant for cucurbits. The varied effects of bird predation in different crop types highlights the need for crop-specific knowledge in applying agroecological pest management in New England. To determine the roles of different bird species in insect pest control, bird diets were studied at 11 low intensity farms in western Massachusetts. DNA metabarcoding was used to determine the frequency of crop pests and pest natural enemies in fecal samples collected from birds on each farm. We found evidence of pest species being consumed in 12.6% of the 737 total fecal samples collected, while pest natural enemies were present in 2.0% of samples. Among bird species, Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats were determined to feed on crop pests significantly more frequently than Song Sparrows, while no bird species effect was found for natural enemy frequency. The only crop pest surveyed in our exclosure experiment which was present in fecal samples was Colorado potato beetle. Though birds preyed on Colorado potato beetle, they also preyed on two known predators of Colorado potato beetle eggs and larvae: Chrysopa oculata and Chrysoperla rufilabris. This provides evidence that the increase in Colorado potato beetle larvae we observed when birds were present was due to ecological release. Combined, our results show that birds provide important, though variable, insect pest control services on low intensity New England farms. Bird predation had primarily beneficial impacts on crops, suppressing abundance of several pest species and decreasing or minimally affecting leaf damage. The effects of bird predation on pest abundance and damage can be integrated into farm management to control insect pests without reliance on expensive, and sometimes damaging, outside inputs like pesticides. Promotion of woody, non-crop habitats on farms can promote species like Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats that feed more frequently on insect pests. Management of New England farmlands for bird pest control may support healthy bird communities and improve agricultural output.

Crappies spawned in Rough River Lake from April 29 to July 9. Larvae were first collected on May 3 when the lake temperature reached 17 C. A total of 7369 crappie was taken from may 3 to August 1. The maximum number of crappies occurred from May 30 to June 20. The developmental chronology was described for specimens 4.75 mm to 29 mm total length. Meristic characters averaged 10.8 for preanal myomere count, 21.1 for postanal myomere count, 31.9 for total myomere count and 0.62 for preanal length to postanal length ratio. Densities of larvae were low early in the spawn reaching a peak of 147/100 m3 on June 6 and decreased to 10/100 m3 thereafter. Larval stages less than 20 mm were taken primarily at the surface while larger specimens moved to deeper waters. Growth averaged 3.1 mm per week for the 13 week study, 1.43 mm per week for the first 7 weeks and 4.5 mm per week for the last 6 weeks. Major food items of the early postlarvae were rotifers, copepod nauplii and the cladoceran, Diaphanosoma sp. Foods of the late postlarvae included the cladocerans, Diaphanosoma sp. and Simocephalus sp. and larval dipterans of the subfamily Chaoborinae. Primary food items of juveniles were copepods, the cladocerans, Bosima sp., Diaphanosoma sp. and Simocephalus sp. and larval members of the Chaoborinae. No differences in development, meristic characters, density, distribution, growth, food habits and obne and cartilage patterns were observed between white and black crappie 20 mm total length and larger.

This dissertation argues the foundation of Spain's first national park, the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga, was the culmination of a four-century-long historical development in which Spaniards redefined the manner in which they conceived of and interacted with nature. The establishment of the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga resulted from two different historical processes, the formation of empirical science in Spain and the pursuit of noble hunting, which converged in the late nineteenth-century in the form of species protection and the environmental conscience it reflected. This environmental conscience permeated discourses on Spanish reinvigoration including those of nobleman, sportsman, and politician Pedro José Pidal y Bernaldo de Quirós whose own articulation of this environmental consciousness materialized in the form of the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga which legislatively meshed species and landscape protection for the first time in Spain in 1916.

This dissertation argues the foundation of Spain's first national park, the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga, was the culmination of a four-century-long historical development in which Spaniards redefined the manner in which they conceived of and interacted with nature. The establishment of the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga resulted from two different historical processes, the formation of empirical science in Spain and the pursuit of noble hunting, which converged in the late nineteenth-century in the form of species protection and the environmental conscience it reflected. This environmental conscience permeated discourses on Spanish reinvigoration including those of nobleman, sportsman, and politician Pedro José Pidal y Bernaldo de Quirós whose own articulation of this environmental consciousness materialized in the form of the Parque Nacional de la Montaña de Covadonga which legislatively meshed species and landscape protection for the first time in Spain in 1916.