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Nou 2004 Fall Field Days

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Ornithologists' Union Fall Field Days were held at the Nebraska National Forest at Halsey on September 24-26, 2004. Thirty-nine NOU members and friends were in attendance for a weekend of excellent weather and birding. Field trips, led by Dave Heidt, Robin Harding and Lanny Randolph, targeted the lakes in various counties to the north and west of Halsey, where a good variety of waterfowl was seen. Highlights included Trumpeter Swans, 11 species of ducks, White-faced Ibis in Grant Co., a Golden Eagle in Thomas Co., 16 species of shorebirds, 5 warbler species and 12 species of sparrows.

Addendum To Greater Snow Goose Article

Nebraska Bird Review

Addendum to Greater Snow Goose Article

In "The Greater Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens atlanticus) in Nebraska" by W. Ross Silcock, published in the Sept. 2004 issue of The Nebraska Bird Review, we failed to credit Randy Buettner of Grand Island, who made the original observation of the Greater Snow Goose and provided the specimen, which was obtained in Clay Co. and is shown in the photo, to William Lemburg.

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review December 2004 Volume 72 Number 4

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc., as its official journal and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $15 in the United States, $18 in Canada and $30 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $4 each, postpaid, in the United States, $5 in Canada, and $8 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Mary Lou Pritchard, NOU Librarian, c/o University of Nebraska State Museum, W- 436 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588- 0514.

Memberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year …

The 2002 Nebraska Nest Report, Wayne Mollhoff

Nebraska Bird Review

In contrast to last year, with "the winter that wouldn't end," this breeding season began with a "spring that wouldn't begin." The winter was mild and uneventful, but although the spring was neither cold nor stormy, the usual warm-up did not come, and when the weather finally warmed in May, it brought no moisture. The resulting drought was worst in the west and southwest, areas that had already been abnormally dry for several years. In mid-June in the southern Panhandle, many ranchers were still feeding hay to the cattle because the grass simply did not grow. The dry conditions surely …

Lake Mcconaughy And Nebraska Piping Plover Recovery Goals, Mark M. Peyton

Nebraska Bird Review

Since 1992 the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (Central) has protected and monitored nesting Piping Plovers along the shore of Lake McConaughy (Keith County, Nebraska). Over those 13 seasons, Central monitored 849 Piping Plover nests and documented the successful fledging (successful fledging is defined as a chick at least 24 days old, or one observed flying) of 1,237 Piping Plover chicks (Table 1), making Lake McConaughy one of the most productive nesting areas for Piping Plovers in Nebraska. The following is a documentation of the contributions of Lake McConaughy to the recovery goals for Piping Plovers in Nebraska. …

Fall Field Report, August-November 2004, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

The fall season is a mix of summer, fall migration, and winter. Thus there are breeding records of interest, such as Mississippi Kites nesting at Red Cloud, only the 2nd known location in Nebraska, and only the 3rd documented breeding record for Northern Parula, despite its common summer residency. Fall migration generates early arrival dates, high counts, and late departure dates, the last seemingly more numerous as our average temperatures increase. Included in the late departure category were several late shorebirds, Great Egret and White-faced Ibis, and even the latest ever Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Counts of interest were 3000 Double-crested …

The Nebraska Bird Review Whole Issue December 2004 Volume 72 Number 4

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

Addendum to "The Greater Snow Goose in Nebraska" ........... 130

Fall Field Report, August - November 2004
by W. Ross Silcock ................................................... 130

Lake McConaughy and Nebraska Piping Plover Recovery Goals
by Mark M. Peyton .................................................. 148

2002 Nebraska Nest Report by Wayne Mollhoff ...................... 153

Does Birding Have a Future? by Rick Wright ........................ 159

In Memory of Dr. Roger Sharpe ............................................ 164

NOU Fall Field Days 2004 Halsey ........................................... 165

Index to Volume 72 .............................................................. 169

Subscription and Organization Information ............................ 179

Does Birding Have A Future?, Rick Wright

Nebraska Bird Review

Does birding have a future?

Now this might seem an odd question, even an absurd question, to pose to an audience like this, and the answer might seem obvious. How could birding not have a future when we, all of us, are birders who bird, and when survey after recent survey assures us that our numbers are growing, our diversity increasing, and our economic and ethical contributions to American society ever more conspicuous. Does birding have a future? The simple answer is yes.

That's the simple answer. The more interesting answer is yes-yes, but. Yes, birding has a future, but …

In Memory Of Dr. Roger Sharpe

Nebraska Bird Review

In Memory of Dr. Roger Sharpe

Nebraska Ornithologists' Union member, author and educator Roger Sharpe passed away on June 27, 2003. He is survived by his wife Beverly, three daughters and one son.

Dr. Sharpe was born on March 31, 1941. His Ph.D. was in Vertebrate Zoology from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. He was an instructor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha from 1968 until his retirement in 2000. He was a professor of ornithology, environmental biology and conservation biology, and he began and continued to coordinate the Environmental Studies Program there.

Dr. Sharpe also originated an …

Index To Volume 72

Nebraska Bird Review

Index to Volume 72 (10 Pages)

Adams, Betty 27

Aechmophorus sp. 154

Alexander,
George 27
Irene 27

Allen, Jerry 79

American Ornithologists' Union 108, 125

Amiotte, Sue 79

Andes-Georges, Linda 40

Anhinga 67, 114

Ani, Groove-billed 67, 118

Aransas N.W.R. 45

Archilochus sp. 62

Arizona 138

Armknecht, Henry 5,27,40

Armstrong, Mark 27,40,79

Avocet American 45, 70, 83, 116, 137, 153, 166

...

Zonotrichia leucophrys,
eucophrys 56
oriantha 56

Renesting Decisions And Annual Fecundity Of Female Dickcissels (Spiza Americana) In Illinois, Jeffrey W. Walk, Kevin Wentworth, Eric L. Kershner, Eric K. Bollinger, Richard E. Warner

Eric K. Bollinger

ABSTRACT.-Renesting decisions and annual fecundity are crucial for interpreting other demographic information, yet are infrequently reported. We used radiotelemetry to monitor female Dickcissels (Spiza americana) throughout the 1999 and 2000 breeding seasons in southeastern Illinois. Overall fecundity (regardless of whether females remained in the study area throughout the breeding season) was 0.61 ± 0.13 female fledglings per year. Of females that remained within the study area, 94% fledged young (1.25 ± 0.15 female fledglings per year). Most females (62%) that experienced nest failure emigrated from the study area (moved >10 km) in 2.8 ± 0.6 days; others (36%) initiated subsequent …

Renesting Decisions And Annual Fecundity Of Female Dickcissels (Spiza Americana) In Illinois, Jeffrey Walk, Kevin Wentworth, Eric Kershner, Eric Bollinger, Richard Warner

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

ABSTRACT.-Renesting decisions and annual fecundity are crucial for interpreting other demographic information, yet are infrequently reported. We used radiotelemetry to monitor female Dickcissels (Spiza americana) throughout the 1999 and 2000 breeding seasons in southeastern Illinois. Overall fecundity (regardless of whether females remained in the study area throughout the breeding season) was 0.61 ± 0.13 female fledglings per year. Of females that remained within the study area, 94% fledged young (1.25 ± 0.15 female fledglings per year). Most females (62%) that experienced nest failure emigrated from the study area (moved >10 km) in 2.8 ± 0.6 days; others (36%) initiated subsequent …

Renesting Decisions And Annual Fecundity Of Female Dickcissels (Spiza Americana) In Illinois, Jeffrey W. Walk, Kevin Wentworth, Eric L. Kershner, Eric K. Bollinger, Richard E. Warner

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

ABSTRACT.-Renesting decisions and annual fecundity are crucial for interpreting other demographic information, yet are infrequently reported. We used radiotelemetry to monitor female Dickcissels (Spiza americana) throughout the 1999 and 2000 breeding seasons in southeastern Illinois. Overall fecundity (regardless of whether females remained in the study area throughout the breeding season) was 0.61 ± 0.13 female fledglings per year. Of females that remained within the study area, 94% fledged young (1.25 ± 0.15 female fledglings per year). Most females (62%) that experienced nest failure emigrated from the study area (moved >10 km) in 2.8 ± 0.6 days; others (36%) initiated subsequent …

In Memory Of Clyde E. Johnson- September 2004

Nebraska Bird Review

Long-time NOU member Clyde Johnson passed away on May 4, 2003. He is survived by his wife Emma, who now resides in Fredericksburg, Texas.

Clyde and Emma lived in Omaha, where Clyde was employed as an insurance agent. They made numerous birding trips to Central America, Europe and Asia. Few other details of his life are available, which is quite likely just the way Clyde wanted it. Although Clyde was quiet about his personal life, he was well known among NOU members for his contributions of time, enthusiasm and money to the organization.

Clyde and Emma joined the NOV in …

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review- September 2004

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Bird Review is published quarterly by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc., as its official journal and is sent to members not in arrears of dues. Annual subscription rates (on a calendar-year basis only): $15 in the United States, $18 in Canada and $30 in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $4 each, postpaid, in the United States, $5 in Canada, and $8 elsewhere. Send orders for back issues to Mary Lou Pritchard, NOU Librarian, c/o University of Nebraska State Museum, W-436 Nebraska Hall, Lincoln, NE 685880514.

Menlberships in the NOU (on a calendar-year basis only): …

The 2001 Nebraska Nesting Report, Wayne Mollhoff

Nebraska Bird Review

The spring of 2001 will likely be remembered as the winter that wouldn't end, especially in central and western Nebraska. The last remnants of roadside snowbanks remained in the east until 10 April, but the last blizzard closed down the Panhandle on 21-22 April, and the last appreciable snowfall there was on 19 May. None of these dates represent late records, but are remarkably later than average for the past 10-15 years, and seemed especially burdensome following the long cold winter and the remarkably early spring the previous year.

While I recognize the danger inherent in making generalizations when working …

The Greater Snow Goose (Chen Caerulescens Atlanticus) In Nebraska, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

Recently, Mr. William Lemburg of Cairo, Nebraska, in a letter to the Editor of the Nebraska Bird Review, noted the following: "I have a friend who does quite a bit of goose hunting. He remarked to me that during the spring snow goose season, he occasionally shoots an extra-large Snow. Thinking that maybe a few Greater Snows that winter along the Atlantic Coast may end up in the Central Flyway, I asked him to save the head of one if he bagged one the following season. This is about five years ago. The following season he did get one. …

The Official List Of The Birds Of Nebraska: 2003

Nebraska Bird Review

The Official List of the Birds of Nebraska was last published in 1997 (NOU Records Committee 1997). That list included 427 species whose occurrence in Nebraska had been documented to the satisfaction of the NOU Records Committee at that time, following the sequence and nomenclature as outlined by the American Ornithologists' Union (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003). The present list includes 447 species based initially on Bray et al. 1986, and subsequently all changes to the Official List of the Birds of Nebraska as determined by the NOU Records Committee (Mollhoff 1987, 1989; …

Nebraska Bird Review Whole Issue September 2004 Volume 72 Number 3

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

Summer Field Report, June - July 2004
by W. Ross Silcock ...........................78

Birds of Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center - 1999-2004
by Kevin Poague ...........................94

In Memory of Clyde E. Johnson ...........................98

The 2001 Nebraska Nesting Report by Wayne J. Mollhoff ...........................99

The Greater Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens atlanticus)
in Nebraska by W. Ross Silcock ............................104

The Official List of the Birds of Nebraska: 2003
by Mark A. Brogie ...........................108

Subscription and Organization Information ...........................127

Birds Of Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center - 1999-2004, Kevin Poague

Nebraska Bird Review

In the summer of 1998, Audubon Nebraska, a state office of the National Audubon Society, purchased the 610-acre O'Brien Ranch located three miles south of Denton, Nebraska. The site, now called Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center (SCPAC), will be devoted to prairie education and restoration. The Center's size expanded to 626 acres in 2000 when the Wachiska Audubon Society bought an adjacent 16-acre property on the northwest comer of the section.

Historically, most of the ranch was never farmed, probably because of its hills and the large number of glacial boulders present in the soil. It is one of the …

Summer Field Report, June-July 2004, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

The coverage of the state by observers who report their sightings, mostly to the listserv NEBirds, is very good relative to their rather low number. Even so, there are parts of the state that are only recently revealing their secrets. Extensive work in the Panhandle in the late 1990s, including mist-netting by Steve Dinsmore, showed that several western species are regular migrants through that part of the state, and similar extensive coverage of waterbirds and shorebirds at Lake McConaughy yielded similar valuable information, following the pioneering efforts there by Dick Rosche. This report contains many references to another interesting area …

Synaptic Transformations Underlying Highly Selective Auditory Representations Of Learned Birdsong, Melissa J. Coleman, Richard Mooney

WM Keck Science Faculty Papers

Stimulus-specific neuronal responses are a striking characteristic of several sensory systems, although the synaptic mechanisms underlying their generation are not well understood. The songbird nucleus HVC (used here as a proper name) contains projection neurons (PNs) that fire temporally sparse bursts of action potentials to playback of the bird's own song (BOS) but are essentially silent when presented with other acoustical stimuli. To understand how such remarkable stimulus specificity emerges, it is necessary to compare the auditory-evoked responsiveness of the afferents of HVC with synaptic responses in identified HVC neurons. We found that inactivating the interfacial nucleus of the nidopallium …

Nest Success And Chick Survival Of Black Terns In Maine: Effects Of Predation On Breeding Productivity, Shane R. Heath

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nest predation is a prominent cause of reproductive failure in wetland-nesting birds, including black terns. As a result, predator avoidance should play an important role in nest site selection. I examined intraspecific variation in nest success to identify factors affecting nest predation of black tern colonies in central Maine. I measured variables related to proximity of wetland features and nest aggregation for 231 successful and 124 depredated black tern nests during the period 1998-2002. I defined candidate models based on logistic regression and selected models with Akaike's Information Criterion adjusted for small sample sizes (AIC_c) to determine the …

Responses Of Nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx Oryzivorus) To Habitat Edges, Eric K. Bollinger, Thomas A. Gavin

Eric K. Bollinger

T.-Avoidance of habitat edges may be contributing to reduced densities of grass- land birds in small habitat patches. Nest densities for grassland-nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) were much lower than expected within 25 m of forest edges at three sites in New York, and that pattern ("edge avoidance") extended to 100 m at one site. Nests located within 50 m of forest or wooded hedgerow edges had lower daily survival rates, compared with nests >100 m from any habitat edge. Bobolinks tended to move away from forest edges when renest- ing after nest failure; that pattern was especially evident in females …

Responses Of Nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx Oryzivorus) To Habitat Edges, Eric Bollinger, Thomas Gavin

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

T.-Avoidance of habitat edges may be contributing to reduced densities of grass- land birds in small habitat patches. Nest densities for grassland-nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) were much lower than expected within 25 m of forest edges at three sites in New York, and that pattern ("edge avoidance") extended to 100 m at one site. Nests located within 50 m of forest or wooded hedgerow edges had lower daily survival rates, compared with nests >100 m from any habitat edge. Bobolinks tended to move away from forest edges when renest- ing after nest failure; that pattern was especially evident in females …

Responses Of Nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx Oryzivorus) To Habitat Edges, Eric K. Bollinger, Thomas A. Gavin

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

T.-Avoidance of habitat edges may be contributing to reduced densities of grass- land birds in small habitat patches. Nest densities for grassland-nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) were much lower than expected within 25 m of forest edges at three sites in New York, and that pattern ("edge avoidance") extended to 100 m at one site. Nests located within 50 m of forest or wooded hedgerow edges had lower daily survival rates, compared with nests >100 m from any habitat edge. Bobolinks tended to move away from forest edges when renest- ing after nest failure; that pattern was especially evident in females …

Responses Of Nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx Oryzivorus) To Habitat Edges, Eric K. Bollinger, Thomas A. Gavin

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

ABSTRACT.-Avoidance of habitat edges may be contributing to reduced densities of grassland birds in small habitat patches. Nest densities for grassland-nesting Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) were much lower than expected within 25m of forest edges at three sites in New York, and that pattern ("edge avoidance") extended to 100m at one site. Nests located within 50 m of forest or wooded hedgerow edges had lower daily survival rates, compared with nests >100m from any habitat edge. Bobolinks tended to move away from forest edges when renesting after nest failure; that pattern was especially evident in females that placed their first nest …

Annual Meeting At Ogallala [June 2004]

Nebraska Bird Review

The Nebraska Ornithologists' Union 2004 Annual Meeting took place at Ogallala on May 14-16, with field trips centering around Lake McConaughy and Lake Ogallala. A total of 190 species was counted over the weekend. The low water level in Lake McConaughy provided excellent habitat for 21 species of waterfowl, 27 species of shorebirds, including nesting Snowy and Piping Plovers, and a Great Black-backed Gull. More surprising were the 17 warbler species, including Blue-winged, Northern Parula, Black-throated Green, Palm, Bay-breasted, and Kentucky. The meeting also offered participants the chance to study many eastern and western species pairs, including Rose-breasted and Black-headed …

2003 (15th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The functions and methods of the NOU Records Committee are described in its bylaws (NOU Records Committee 1986). The committee's purpose is to provide a procedure for documenting unusual bird sightings and to establish a list of all documented birds for Nebraska. "The Official List of the Birds of Nebraska" was first published in 1988 (NOU Records Committee 1988) and an update was published in 1997 (NOU Records Committee 1997).

The "Official List" has been appended thirteen times: (Mollhoff 1989, Grenon 1990, 1991, Gubanyi 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, Brogie 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, Jorgensen 2001, 2002, 2003). This report includes all …

Species For Which The Nou Records Committee Seeks Documentation, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The NOU Records Committee has revised the list of accidental or casual species for which the committee seeks documentation as of the end of 2003. This list was last published in 1995 (NBR 63:12-13). The committee seeks documentation on all species with less than regular occurrence in Nebraska, as well as any species occurring out of range or out of season. Changes in this list since 1995 include the addition of new species documented for the state, and the deletion of species upgraded to regular status. Below are listed the species of less than regular occurrence based on the …