Ornithology Commons^™

1985 Nebraska Nesting Survey, Esther V. Bennett

Nebraska Bird Review

Data on the 1985 nesting season in Nebraska were received from 28 observers and two agencies, reporting on 83 species from 39 counties. Counties in the tabulation are listed in a west to east order, with the northernmost of the approximately equal locations given first. Numbers represent Nest Record Cards, N represents nests for which no Nest Record Card was submitted, E represents eggs, F represents feeding, C represents copulating, CF represents carrying food, FCo represents feeding Cowbird, NM represents carrying nesting material, and Y represents young observed. GPC in the following paragraph represents Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, and …

Whooping Crane Roost Site Characteristics On The Platte River, Buffalo County, Nebraska, Gary R. Lingle, Kenneth J. Strom, Jerry W. Ziewitz

Nebraska Bird Review

Whooping Crane (Grus americana) use of the Platte River in Nebraska has been a controversial topic, especially in the last decade. Pressures from water development interests seeking Platte River water conflict with the needs of wildlife and interests from the conservation community. Between spring 1942 and fall 1984 there were 13 confirmed Whooping Crane sightings on or near the Platte River (US Fish and Wildlife Service, 1985). Lingle et al. (1984) described physical characteristics of a Platte River roost site used in 1983. This report describes the physical characteristics of the most recent known roost site on the …

Mottled Duck In Nebraska, W. Ross Silcock, Tanya Bray, Babs Padelford

Nebraska Bird Review

The two major US populations of Mottled Duck occur in Florida and along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas, with local breeding inland to “southeast Colorado, western Kansas, Oklahoma (rarely), and northeast Texas” (AOU Checklist of North American Birds, Sixth Edition, 1983). Palmer (Handbook of North American Birds, Vol. 2, 1976) notes that Mottled Duck bred in 1963 at Cheyenne Bottoms, Kansas, and that some individuals occur inland beyond the usual breeding range during the post-breeding period. Presumably these inland. records pertain to birds from the Texas-Louisiana population, as the Florida birds are generally considered nonmigratory. …

“Book Reviews” From Nebraska Bird Review (June 1986) 54(2)

Nebraska Bird Review

Tales of a Low-Rent Birder, Pete Dunne, 175 pp., 5½ x 8¾, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, cloth, $15.95. Pete Dunne is director of the Cape May Bird Observatory. These articles were written between 1977 and 1986 and appeared first in the Peregrine Observer.

Migratory Bird Habitat on the Platte and North Platte Rivers in Nebraska, Paul J. Currier, Gary R. Lingle, John G. VanDerwalker, 184 pp., 6 x 9, The Platte River Whooping Crane Trust, 2550 N. Diers Avenue, Suite H, Grand Island, Nebraska 68801, indexed, paper, $11.00 postpaid from the Trust. This is a …

Nebraska Bird Review (June 1986) 54(2), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

The Eighty-fifth (1986) Annual Meeting … 30

1985 Nebraska Nesting Survey … 31

Book Reviews … 36

Whooping Crane Roost Site Characteristics on the Platte River, Buffalo County, Nebraska … 36

Mottled Duck in Nebraska … 39

Notes … 40

“Notes” From Nebraska Bird Review (June 1986) 54(2)

Nebraska Bird Review

MORE 1985 CHRISTMAS COUNT DATA. This data for the Lincoln count is now available: 5:10 AM to 5:15 PM. AM and PM clear. Temp. 31° to 45° F. Wind NW 10–30 mph. Snow cover 0 to 18 inches. Fresh water frozen. Wild food crop poor. Thirty-five observers, 19–30 in 11–13 parties, 5–16 at feeders. Total party-hours 73 (48 on foot, 25 by car) plus 18 hours at feeders, 3.5 owling; total party-miles 320 (54 on foot, 266 by car) plus 87 miles owling.

CORRECTION TO 1980 MIGRATION REPORTS. In the reports covering the first half of 1980 (NBR 48:73) …

The Eighty-Fifth (1986) Annual Meeting

Nebraska Bird Review

The Tout Bird Club was host for the eighty-fifth Annual Meeting 17 and 18 May 1986, which was based at the University of Nebraska Research Center at North Platte. Seventy-six people attended the banquet, and that probably was the maximum attendance. There was a slide show Friday night, Saturday morning was for birding. In the afternoon Tom Hupf, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Grand Island, presented the slide show “Rainwater Basin Wetland Project” and led a discussion afterward. The business meeting followed. It was announced that the Groove-billed Ani (NBR 53:78), reported by Maysel Kiser and others, was the …

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review (June 1986) 54(2)

Nebraska Bird Review

Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December, by the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union, Inc., as its official journal and sent to all members who are not in arrears for dues. Subscriptions (on a calendar-year basis only) are $10.00 per year in the United States, $12.00 per year in Canada and Mexico, and $12.50 per year in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $3.00 each, postpaid, in the United States, $3.50 elsewhere.

Memberships (on a calendar-year basis only): Students, $3.00; Active, $7.00; Sustaining, $15.00; Family Active, $10.00; Family Sustaining, $20.00; Life, $100.00.

All dues and subscriptions should be …

Wpa News 12 (1986), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (April 1986), number 12

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Wpa News 11 (1986), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (February 1986), number 11

Published by the World Pheasant Association

Aspects Of Ecology And Biogeography Of Acanthocephala On Antarctic Seabirds [Données Écologiques Et Biogéographiques Sur Les Acantocéphales D’Oiseaux Marins Antarctiques], Eric P. Hoberg

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Four species of acanthocephalans are reported from seabirds, nototheniid fishes and gammaridean amphipods in the western Antarctic. Corynosoma hamanni (von Linstow, 1892) was found in Phalacrocorax atriceps King, Chionis alba (Gmelin), Larus dominicanus Lichtenstein, and Catharacta lonnbergi (Mathews). The complete life cycle of this acanthocephalan was elucidated: cysticanths develop in the haemocoel of a gammaridean amphipod, Pontogeneiella sp. of the family Eusiridae and presumably, following ingestion of parasitized amphipods, encyst in the body cavity of Antarctic fishes of several species. Corynosoma singularis Skriabin and Nikol’skii, 1971 was found only in P. atriceps. Corynosoma bullosum (von Linstow, 1892) occurred in both …

The Monographic Literature Of The Galliformes, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard Collection

Because of their extraordinarily diverse beauty and importance as sporting birds,  pheasants and their relatives have been the subjects of many of the world's finest ornithological books, some of which also rank as among the most valuable from a book-collector's viewpoint. It is the purpose of this brief review to mention some of the landmark books or technical monographs dealing with major groups of Galliformes, both from the standpoints of their informational contents and their relative availability or collector's value. Emphasis is placed on English-language publications, although a few important recent German publications are mentioned.

Probably any review of galliform …

Third International Pheasant Symposium (January 1986 : Thailand), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Conference Proceedings

Session 1: Thailand

Pheasants of Thailand, Somtob Norapuck

Habitat Destruction in Thailand, Chompool

Session 2: Adaptability of South-East Asian Pheasants

Some views of the adaptability of Rain Forest Pheasants, G. W. H. Davison

Session 3: Adaptability of Himalayan Pheasants

The Adaptability of the Pheasants of Bangladesh in Disturbed Habitats, Md Sohrab Uddin Sarker

Human Impact on Pheasant habitat and numbers of pheasants on Pipar, Central Nepal, Nick Picozzi

Session 4: The Adaptability of Pheasants in China and Pakistan

Summary of Western Tragopan Project in Pakistan with recommendations for conservation of the species, Kamal Islam and John A Crawford

The Breeding …

Masthead From Nebraska Bird Review (December 1985) 53(4)

Nebraska Bird Review

Published quarterly in March, June, September, and December by the Nebraska Ornithologists' Union, Inc., as its official journal and sent to all members who are not in arrears for dues. Subscriptions (on calendar year basis only) are $10.00 per year in the United States, $12.00 per year in Canada and Mexico, and $12.50 per year in all other countries, payable in advance. Single copies are $3.00 each, postpaid, in the United States; $3.50 elsewhere.

Memberships (on a calendar year basis only): Student, $3.00; Active, $7.00; Sustaining, $15.00; Family Active, $10.00; Family Sustaining, $20.00; Life, $100.00.

All dues and subscriptions should …

“Notes” From Nebraska Bird Review (December 1985) 53(4)

Nebraska Bird Review

FILLMORE COUNTY. On 23 June 1985, while I was atlasing block #IF01 in Fillmore County, just north of Shickley, I saw a Common Moorhen in Weis Lagoon and found a nest with 11 eggs. There was also a very large colony of Black-crowned Night-Herons [and] also a colony of Great-tailed Grackles.—William C. Garthright, Lincoln

RED-NECKED GREBE. On 16 June 1985 1 was wading through some cattails at the edge of a small open area in a pond at the North 27th Street marsh when I came upon a grebe sitting in the open on the water.—William C. Garthright, Lincoln

IBIS …

Nebraska Bird Review (December 1985) 53(4), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

1985 Fall Field Day … 70

Supplement to 1985 Spring Occurrence Report … 70

Black-necked Stilts Nesting in Nebraska … 72

A Red Phalarope in Pierce County, Nebraska … 72

The Red-naped Sapsucker in Nebraska … 73

Nesting Observations of the Piping Plover near Sioux City … 74

Notes … 76

Index To Volume 53

Nebraska Bird Review

Accipiter sp. 19

Adcock, Cash and Dorothy 63

Albino 41, 54

Alexander, George and Irene 22

Alfred, Norris 6, 17, 46, 60

Ani, Groove-billed 78

Avocet, American 9, 39(2), 46, 48, 55, 71, 72, 77, 78

. . .

Wright, Rick 3, 18, 22, 41, 42, 44, 57, 68, 70, 82

Wyman, Howard and Wilma 70

Wilma 22

Yellowlegs, Greater 9, 55, 70

Lesser 10, 39, 41, 55

sp. 9, 39

Yellowthroat, Common 15, 39, 46, 63

Zendeh, Scheil 41(2), 43, 82

Nesting Observations Of The Piping Plover Near Sioux City, Randall D. Williams

Nebraska Bird Review

From mid-April to early August 1985 members of the Loess Hills Audubon Society monitored the nesting of Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) on fly-ash settling ponds of the IPS Port Neal Generating Station, on the Missouri River near Salix, Iowa. Declining regional and national populations (Barie, 1985; Kaufman, 1984; and Evans, 1985) make the discovery of nesting individuals quite exciting. Piping Plovers were first found at this site in 1984.

The ash ponds appear to be very good nesting habitat (Evans, 1985). There are large areas of gravel-like substrate with little to no vegetation, minimal human disturbance, and an …

A Red Phalarope In Pierce County, Nebraska, Mark A. Brogie, Ed M. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The Red Phalarope (Phalaropus fulicaria) is seen yearly in the central portion of the United States, from the Great Lakes to Texas. More than 85% of these sightings are from fall, with 75% of the total from September to November (Dinsmore et al., 1984). This species is, however, considered a very rare or accidental migrant through the Plains States (Johnsgard 1980). A single specimen, taken on 15 October 1921 at Dad’s Lake, near Wood Lake in Cherry County (Conover 1934) represents the only previous record of this species in Nebraska. The following represents the first record for this …

Black-Necked Stilts Nesting In Nebraska, Mark J. Helsinger

Nebraska Bird Review

On 7 May 1985 I saw two adult Black-necked Stilts on Lower Harrison Lake, Crescent Lake NWR, Garden County. In the middle of June photographers Charlie and Rita Summers saw two on Martin Lake. On 11 July I saw two adults. and four young on Martin Lake. The whitish/gray-colored young had long grayish/green legs (3–4") and a black bill, about 2" long. They appeared to be feeding by probing soft mud. The two adults were exhibiting aggressive behavior. One adult dived and screamed at a Blue-winged Teal hen with eight ducklings until they moved from the area, and also chased …

1985 Fall Field Day

Nebraska Bird Review

Pleasant weather greeted the 70 people who attended part or all of the 1985 Fall Field Day, at the 4-H Camp at Halsey National Forest, 5 and 6 October. There was a slide show Friday night and the official tally Sunday noon, but other than the scheduled meals, the rest of the time was free for individual birding. The committee on a records committee completed its work and presented its report to the directors. The report was accepted and Tanya Bray, Ruth Green, and Wayne Mollhoff were appointed to 3-year terms on the committee, Alice Kenitz and Barbara Padelford for …

The Red-Naped Sapsucker In Nebraska, Tanya E. Bray, Barbara K. Padelford, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

The Red-naped Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus nuchalis) was for many years accorded subspecific status within Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyapicus varius), but the American Ornithologists’ Union recently revised this opinion, and now regards nuchalis as a “good” species (Auk 102:680). Red-naped Sapsucker can be added to the Nebraska (species) list on the basis of three specimens in the collection of the University of Nebraska State Museum (UNSM).

The breeding range of Red-naped Sapsucker includes the Rocky Mountains east of the Cascades from southwest Canada south to central Arizona and it winters in much of northern Mexico, north as far …

Supplement To 1985 Spring Occurrence Report

Nebraska Bird Review

The following records were overlooked until it was too late to include them in the original report (NBR 53:50). They are either earlier, later, or new records for the localities listed, most recorded by Rick Wright, but also by Glen Kramer and the Werthmans. April is A, May is M. Four species and a hybrid, all marked +, were not in the first report, so that the total for the state is 296 rather than 292. The Douglas-Sarpy count is increased by two; no attempt was made to get similar figures for the other columns since they would affect …

Sexual Selection In Lekking Sage Grouse: Phenotypic Correlates Of Male Mating Success, Robert M. Gibson, Jack W. Bradbury

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Mate choice cues in sage grouse were reinvestigated by analyzing relationships between male mating success and a range of suggested cues. Display cues were implicated by significant relationships between mating status (whether or not a male mated) and lek attendance, display rate (corrected for effects of female proximity and time of day) and an acoustic component related to temporal and frequency measures of a whistle emitted during the strut display. Although display rate and the acoustic component were intercorrelated, both exerted significant partial effects on mating success in multivariate analyses. These display measures also differed significantly between males. In contrast, …

Wpa News 10 (1985), World Pheasant Association

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

WPA News (November 1985), number 10

Published by the World Pheasant Association

“Notes” From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1985) 53(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

RE SWAN GEESE IN KEITH COUNTY. A recent account (NBR 53:4) of Chinese Geese (domestic forms of the Swan Goose are called Chinese Geese –Ed.) in Keith County seems to suggest that the birds were of natural occurrence. No wild individuals of this species have ever been reported in North America, however, and it may in fact be declining in its native range. It is exceedingly common, though, in zoos and parks as well as on farms, where it is often only nominally a captive; birds are readily available and are not typically afforded the close watch given more valuable …

Hybrid Bluebirds In The Pine Ridge, Barbara L. Wilson, Jim Minyard, Hope Minyard, Tanya Bray

Nebraska Bird Review

A hybrid pair of bluebirds is raising young in Dawes County, Nebraska, in the yard of Jim and Hope Minyard, approximately 8 miles south of Crawford. The female of the pair is a Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides). She is basically a dull gray bluebird, with little contrast between upperparts and underparts. There is no rusty or tan on her breast, and no sharp demarcation between the gray breast and the lighter belly. Her rump and the bases of her outer tail feathers are a light, bright blue, while the other tail feathers and the primaries are blackish. When …

Nebraska Bird Review (September 1985) 53(3), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

1984 Nebraska Nesting Survey … 46

1985 (Sixtieth) Spring Occurrence Report … 50

Hybrid Bluebirds in the Pine Ridge … 67

Notes … 67

Book Review … 68

“Book Review” From Nebraska Bird Review (September 1985) 53(3)

Nebraska Bird Review

The Bird Identification Calendar, 1986, illustrated in color by John Sill, 11 x 14, Stephen Greene Press in cooperation with The Massachusetts Audubon Society, distributed by Viking Penguin Inc., New York City.

The calendar space is full size; the over 70 illustrations and short paragraphs are on the facing page (back of the previous page). Also, two preliminary pages on bird identification in general.

1984 Nebraska Nesting Survey, Esther V. Bennett

Nebraska Bird Review

Data on the 1984 nesting season in Nebraska were received from 17 observers and organizations, reporting on 72 species from 36 counties or groups of counties. Counties in the tabulations are listed in a west to east order, with the northernmost of the approximately equal locations given first. Numbers represent Nest Record Cards; N represents nests observed for which no Nest Record Card was submitted; F represents feeding; CF represents carrying food; CN represents carrying nesting material; and Y represents young observed. GPC in the following paragraph represents Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Thirty species were reported on 192 North …