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The Mayfly Newsletter, Peter M. Grant

The Mayfly Newsletter

The Mayfly Newsletter is the official newsletter of the Permanent Committee of the International Conferences on Ephemeroptera.

Editor's Note, Ray Korpi

Nebraska Bird Review

I am pleased to announce that Rosalind Morris of Lincoln will serve as the editor of The Nebraska Bird Review for 1992. Dr. Morris brings many years of birding experience to the Review and will do a fine job. Dr. Morris officially takes over the editorship on January 1, 1992.

Until that time, I will continue to serve as editor of the NBR. I will consider submissions for the December issue up until November 27, 1991 (the day before Thanksgiving). After that date, those wishing to contribute articles and notes to the NBR should mail them to Rosalind Morris, 3018 …

Eagles

Nebraska Bird Review

For the past three years, the Central Nebraska Public Power District has operated an Eagle Viewing Center at our J-2 Hydropower plant south of Lexington, and this past year below Kingsley Dam on Lake Ogallala.

The following are some results recorded at the sites:

At J-2 Hydroplant:

January 1990-0bservations were recorded on 23 days. 263 birds were sighted for a daily average of 11.4 per day. The highest count was 20 birds on January 2.

February 1990-0bservations were recorded on 15 days. 28 birds were sighted for a daily average of 1.9 per day. The highest count was 16 birds …

A Nesting Report Of A Wilson's Phalarope In Lancaster County, Larry Einemann

Nebraska Bird Review

Only once before has a nesting record of Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) been reported in Lancaster County. This report is in The Nebraska Bird Review, December 1985. Employees of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission discovered two fledglings at a site in the northeast part of the county at 98th and Ashland Road. The two fledglings were found in a wet meadow. They were accompanied by two male and one female phalaropes. The sighting was made on 13 June 1985.

On 7 June 1991 I visited Arbor Lake, a recently purchased salt marsh about one mile north …

Some Birds Of The Pony Lake Area Of The Eastern Sandhills, Nebraska, James E. Ducey, Jerry Schoenenberger

Nebraska Bird Review

A partial survey was made of the bird life in the vicinity of Pony Lake, located about 15 miles south of Newport, in portions of sections 17-20, T28N, RI7W, Rock County.

Pony Lake was reportedly named according to a legend from "early days" when a native American was thrown and killed on its banks by a wild pony (Perkey, 1982). Originally Pony Lake was reported to be 20 feet deep (lake history based on conversations and observations of Jerry Schoenenberger). In the late 1800s, possibly 1900-1910, a town site was platted on the southwest corner of the lake. Construction included …

Spring 1991 Whooping Crane Report

Nebraska Bird Review

The following is a synopsis of the report from the U.s. Fish and Wildlife Service with regard to Whooping Crane sightings from Spring 1991. The report consists of confirmed, probable, and unconfirmed sightings during the season. These terms are defined in NBR 56:79.

The USFWS states that 135 Whooping Cranes began the spring migration, compared to 142 in 1990. This drop of seven birds represents the first population decrease since 1981. Most confirmed sightings en route to Wood Buffalo National Park, Canada, were made between April 14 and April 23. Overcast skies and low visibility delayed the usual early April …

Announcements And Corrections In Nebraska Bird Review

Nebraska Bird Review

GRANTS FOR NONGAME WILDLIFE RESEARCH IN MINNESOTA

Corrections

Sighting Information And Analysis

Nebraska Bird Review

Rather than do a county-by-county analysis as has been done in the past, since this count starts a new year, I thought I would comment on the sightings presented using both information provided by the observers and appropriate reference materials. This current report only documents those species which are listed by the Records Committee as needing documentation, or those which merit comment due to significant out-of-range or out-of-season status. A more thorough study, including nesting information provided by the reporters, will appear in the next NBR.

Pileated Woodpecker Responds To Owl Tape [Notes], Rick Wright

Nebraska Bird Review

Suspecting the Pileated Woodpecker (Drycopos pileatus) first reported in fall 1990 might still be present, I spent much of a late March visit to Nebraska in Fontenelle Forest, Sarpy County, looking and listening for the bird without success. Late on the morning of March 26, 1991, Tanya Bray, Babs Padelford, and I wele at the mouth of Handsome Hollow in Fontenelle Forest, the site of the most recent observations. Seeing and hearing nothing we played the recorded song of Eastern Screech-Owl (Otus asio), hoping to attract passerines. Within seconds, a female Pileated Woodpecker flew silently from …

Spring 1991 Occurrence Report

Nebraska Bird Review

For the first six months of 1991, 301 species were reported from 34 counties. This compares with 290 species from 13 occurrence report and 17 "spot check" locations covering 30 counties in 1990; 289 from 20 report locations in 36 counties in 1989; and 306 from 28 report locations involving 34 counties. The tables which follow represent 22 of these counties in 21 columns (Douglas and Sarpy listed together as has become the custom), and additional species lists from 11 counties are also provided.

Cuming County Banding Records, Mabel Ott

Nebraska Bird Review

For the past 14 out of 16 years I have banded at a farm northeast of Beemer, Cuming County, for 2 to 4 days in late May. Last year (1990), Memorial Day weekend, 222 birds of 43 species were banded.

Book Reviews, R. G. Cortelyou

Nebraska Bird Review

Frank Graham, Jr., with Carl W. Buchmeister. The Audubon Ark: A History of the National Audubon Society. 336 pp., bibliography, index. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990. $29.95.

Connie Toops. The Enchanting Owl. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press. 128 pp., bibliography, index, 100 color photographs. $27.95 hardcover, $17.95 softcover.

Eumeces Septentrionalis (Prairie Skink): Piscivory., Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

The prairie skink is a North American lizard characterized by a diet that is primarily insectivorous (Breckenridge 1943. Amer. MidI. Nat. 29:591-606). Fish have not been previously recorded as a food item (reviewed in Somma and Cochran 1989. Great Basin Nat. 49:525-534). On 3 June 1990 between 0930 and 1030 h, six Eumeces septentrionalis (three gravid females, one male, and two juveniles) were captured from amongst riprap and beneath stone slabs on the earthen dam forming the windward shoreline of Burchard lake, Pawnee Co., Nebraska (T.12N., R.10E., Sec. 4). The three females and one juvenile were placed in the …

Lists Of Larval Worms From Marine Invertebrates Of The Pacific Coast Of North America, Hilda Lei Ching

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Immature stages of seventy-three digenetic trematodes are listed by their families, marine invertebrate hosts, and localities and then cross listed according to their molluscan hosts. The list contains many new host records, and larval stages of fifteen digenetic trematodes were newly recorded from gastropods from British Columbia and California. A list of immature stages of fourteen cestodes, acanthocephaIans, and nematodes is also included.

Sterol Composition Of The Corn Root Lesion Nematode, Pratylenchus Agilis, And Corn Root Cultures, David J. Chitwood, William R. Lusby

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Sterols from mixed stages of the com root lesion nematode, Pratylenchus agilis, and uninfected corn root cultures were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Twenty-eight sterols were identified in P. agilis, including nine not previously detected in nematodes. The major sterols were 24-ethylcholest-22-enol, 24-ethylcholesta-5,22-dienol, 24-methy1cholestanol, 24-ethylcholestanol, isofucostanol, and 24-ethylcholesterol. The principal corn root sterols were 24-ethylcholesta-5,22-dienol, 24-methylcholesterol, 24-ethylcholesterol, isofucosterol, and cycloartenol. Therefore, the major metabolic transformation of sterols by P. agilis was saturation of the sterol nucleus. In addition, very small amounts of 4α-methylsterols were biosynthesized by P. agilis. The 4-methylation pathway is unique to nematodes and was …

Redescription Of Eimeria Escomeli (Rastegaieff, 1930) From Myrmecophaga Tridactyla, And A First Report From Bolivia, Scott Lyell Gardner, Steve Upton, C. R. Lambert, O. C. Jordán

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Eimeria escomeli (Rastegaieff, 1930) Levine and Becker, 1933, is redescribed from the giant anteater, Myrmecophaga tridactyla (L.), from the departamento de La Paz, Bolivia. This is the first report of parasites from M. tridactyla from Bolivia and only the third time that coccidians have been recorded from this host.

1990 Fall Field Days (December 1990)

Nebraska Bird Review

1990 FALL FIELD DAYS

The registration for the1990 Fall Field Days, held 7 to 9 September at the 4-H Camp in the National Forest near Halsey, was 57. The weather was clear, in the 80's during the day, but cool nights, and even during the day the Lodge was pleasant because of the ventilation and the fans. Friday night there was a slide show, Saturday night Gerry Toll told about the Peregrine Falcon project in Omaha, with slides. Mrs. Green banded birds, as usual, showing interesting specimens to those who were near. On Saturday some took a canoe trip down …

Index To Volume 58 (December 1990)

Nebraska Bird Review

Index

A-Z

9 pages

Laughing Gull In Cedar County, Nebraska, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

Laughing Gull in Cedar County, Nebraska

Johnsgard's (1986) A Revised List of the Birds of Nebraska and Adjacent States considers the Laughing Gull (Larus atricilia) an extremely rare vagrant in Nebraska. Bray, Padelford, and Silcock (1986), in The Birds of Nebraska: a Critically Evaluated List, consider this species as accidental, with only one of 13 records accepted - the description of a specimen of one taken 2 April 1915 at Inland, Clay Co. This specimen was once in the Hastings Municipal Museum, but was sold and its current location is unknown.

A Laughing Gull documentation by Steve …

Mountain Plover Sighted In Kimball County, Mary Clausen

Nebraska Bird Review

In late April of 1990 I went to Kimball Co. to search for Mountain Plovers. Over a period of a week I walked several sections where Mountain Plovers have been sighted in the past. No Plovers were found at that time.

After I returned to my office in Lincoln, Fritz Knopf (Avian Studies Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado) contacted me to discuss Mountain Plover nesting habitat and behavior. Fritz offered to make a quick drive around Kimball Co. to see how the habitat in Nebraska compared to that used by nesting Mountain Plovers in Colorado.

On 3 May …

"Notes," From Nebraska Bird Review (December 1990)

Nebraska Bird Review

THE TABLES FOR THE 1990 SPRING OCCURRENCE REPORT were poorly printed, for unexplained reasons. The tables did not match across the "gutter"; it will help to draw a line from the first line on one page to the first line on the facing page, and then draw a line across for every third line. That way, the line for each species will either have a line across, or be just above or just below one. The headings for the left-hand pages after page 60 were omitted. The headings for pages 58 and 60 are correct for the rest of the …

Significant (?) Modifications In Bird Sightings At Wolff Lake (Fall 1979 To Spring 1990), Thomas A. Hoffman

Nebraska Bird Review

One of the problems of having a computer handy is that you begin to start organizing your notes. Recently I began to organize the notes I had taken since 1979 for the Nebraska Bird Review's semi- annual occurrence reports. Partly I wanted to verify my suspicions about variation in the occurrence of several species during that period of time. I try to visit the area called Wolff Lake (a sand-arid-gravel operation on the south side of the Platte River in northwestern Saunders Co. each weekend. But there are many variations, and there are periods of prolonged absences. I average about …

Third Report Of The N.O.U. Records Committee, Alan G. Grenon

Nebraska Bird Review

The functions and methods of the N.O. U. Records Committee (henceforth, "the committee") have been described previously (NBR 54:72-4).

This report includes accounts of records evaluated by the committee in the last year, covering mostly records with accessions numbers 151-245. All records mentioned here are available to interested persons at the N.O.U. archives at the University of Nebraska State Museum, Lincoln.

State List

With this report, the following changes are made in the official list of the birds of Nebraska. These include changes in common and scientific names (American Ornithologists Union (AOU), 1989, NBR 57:58), additions to the state …

Whole Issue Nebraska Bird Review (December 1990)

Nebraska Bird Review

Table of Contents

Third Report of the N.O.U. Records Committee.................... 90

1990 Fall Field Days.................... 97

Mountain Plover Sighted in Kimball County ....................98

Laughing Gull in Cedar County, Nebraska ....................99

A Comparison of Historic and Modern Birdlife at an Eastern Sand Hills Lake In Nebraska ....................100

Significant (?) Modifications in Bird Sightings at Wolff Lake (fall 1979 to spring 1990) ....................104

Notes ....................106

Index to volume 58 ....................108

Polymorphism Of Eimerian Oocysts Can Be A Problem In Naturally Infected Hosts: An Example From Subterranean Rodents In Bolivia, Scott Lyell Gardner, Donald W. Duszynski

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Since 1986, 364 tuco-tucos (Ctenomys spp.) representing 7 species were collected from 16 major collecting areas representing at least 4 distinct ecological habitats in Bolivia, South America. All were examined for coccidia, and 125 (34%) had oocysts in their feces including 84 of 236 (36%) Ctenomys boliviensis from tropical palm/savanna habitats; 1 of 3 (33%) C. conoveri from a chaco thorn forest; 3 of 7 (33%) C. frater from medium altitude grass habitats; and 6 of 8 (75%) C. lewisi and 31 of 35 (88%) C. opimus from high altitude/puna habitats. None of 3 C. …

"Book Reviews" From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1990)

Nebraska Bird Review

BOOK REVIEWS

A Parrot without a Name The Search for the Last Unknown Birds on Earth

Don Stap, 240 pp. index, 6 x 9, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, $19.95

This is an account of a 1987 collecting expedition to Peru for Louisiana State University, led by John O'Neill. He had already described 11 new species of birds and was still looking. Peru has 1700 known species of birds and still counting. It took them two days by outboard-powered dugouts to get to the camp site from the last settlement. Later, with higher water, two natives made it in a …

1990 (Sixty-Fifth) Spring Occurrence Report

Nebraska Bird Review

1990 (SIXTY-FIFTH) SPRING OCCURRENCE REPORT

Two hundred and ninety species are listed on this report from 13 locations plus 17 counties reported in five "spot check" counties. The 1989 figures were 289 species from 13 locations, plus 7 "spot check" columns involving 36 counties; in 1988, 306 from 15 locations, plus 13 "spot check" columns involving 34 counties; in 1987, 288 from 13 locations and 6 "spot check" columns involving 9 counties; and 1986, 304 from 13 locations and 9 "spot check" columns involving 24 counties.

The "spot check" columns are for infrequent visits to an area and the la …

"Corrections To 1989 Fall Occurrence Report," From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1990)

Nebraska Bird Review

CORRECTIONS TO 1989 FALL OCCURRENCE REPORT

On NBR 58:25, the final date of Au 12 for Bank Swallow in Lancaster Co. should be moved to Dakota Co. and the Sp 12 for Doug/Sarpy should be moved squarely under that column. The final date for Eastern Bluebird for Lancaster should be Ot 29.

First Nebraska Kittiwake Specimen, Paul A. Johnsgard

Nebraska Bird Review

FIRST NEBRASKA KITTIWAKE SPECIMEN

The Black-legged Kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) has previously been known from Nebraska only from a few sight records. Dr. George Hudson observed one at Oak Creek Park, Lincoln, in March, 1939 (NBR 5:57). Another individual was seen at Branched Oak Lake, Lancaster County, during April of 1976. Thirdly, an immature was seen and photographed at Oak LakePark, Lincoln, on April 20-21, 1981 (NBR 49:41). Lastly, during the fall occurrence report for 1988 (NBR 57: 16, 53) Kittiwakes were reported from Cedar and Douglas-northern Sarpy counties, the Cedar County sightings involving up to …

Indigo Bunting

Nebraska Bird Review

INDIGO BUNTING John Lueshen reported that a male Indigo Bunting was found dead in the front yard of his place (Route 2, Wisner - Ed.) It had band number 81-44804, put on by Willetta Lueshen on July 2, 1985. It was at least a year old when banded, making it at least six years old. Another male Indigo Bunting was attacking the dead bird when John first saw it.

---Lueshen's Birders Newsletter, June 1990