Population Biology Commons^™

Geographic Population Structure And Taxonomic Identity Of Rhinichthys Osculus, The Santa Ana Speckled Dace, As Elucidated By Nuclear Dna Intron Sequencing, Liane Raynette Greaver

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Rhinichthys osculus (Cyprinidae), the speckled dace, is the most widely distributed freshwater fish in the western United States. The southern California populations of R. osculus are identified as the Santa Ana speckled dace (SASD), though the SASD has not yet been formally recognized as a distinct taxon. Current mtDNA analysis performed in the Metcalf Lab has shown a reciprocally monophyletic relationship among three California regions; southern, central coast, and Owens Valley. Similarly, microsatellite genotyping has shown significant levels of geographic population structure. The purpose of this study was to provide nuclear DNA sequence data to determine the taxonomic status of …

Landscape Factors That Influence European Starling (Sturnus Vulgaris) Nest Box Occupancy At Nasa Plum Brook Station (Pbs), Erie County, Ohio, Usa, Morgan Pfeiffer, Thomas W. Seamans, Bruce N. Buckingham, Bradley F. Blackwell

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

During the last decade at NASA Plum Brook Station (PBS), Erie County, Ohio, United States, there has been a nearly 50% decrease in European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) occupancy (nests with ≥1 egg) of nest boxes designed to be used by starlings. Increased availability of natural cavities, from invertebrate pests, might have altered nest box occupation rates. It was hypothesized that starling nest box occupation rates would be a function of an index of potentially suitable tree cavities for nesting starlings, the semi-colonial nature of breeding starlings, and access to foraging areas (e.g., mowed lawns near buildings). Specifically, it was predicted …

Comparison Of The Efficacy Of Four Drug Combinations For Immobilization Of Wild Pigs, Christine K. Ellis, Morgan E. Wehtje, Lisa L. Wolfe, Peregrine L. Wolff, Clayton D. Hilton, Mark C. Fisher, Shari Green, Michael P. Glow, Joeseph M. Halseth, Michael J. Lavelle, Nathan P. Snow, Eric H. Vannatta, Jack C. Rhyan, Kurt C. Vercauteren, William R. Lance, Pauline Nol

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Field immobilization of native or invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is challenging. Drug combinations commonly used often result in unsatisfactory immobilization, poor recovery, and adverse side effects, leading to unsafe handling conditions for both animals and humans. We compared four chemical immobilization combinations, medetomidine–midazolam–butorphanol (MMB), butorphanol–azaperone–medetomidine (BAM™), nalbuphine–medetomidine–azaperone (NalMed-A), and tiletamine– zolazepam–xylazine (TZX), to determine which drug combinations might provide better chemical immobilization of wild pigs. We achieved adequate immobilization with no post-recovery morbidity withMMB. Adequate immobilization was achieved with BAM™; however, we observed post-recovery morbidity. Both MMB and BAM™ produced more optimal results relative to body temperature, recovery, and …

Vision In An Abundant North American Bird: The Red-Winged Blackbird, Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Patrice E. Baumhardt, Luke P. Tyrrell, Amanda Elmore, Shelagh T. Deliberto, Scott J. Werner

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Avian vision is fundamentally different from human vision; however, even within birds there are substantial between species differences in visual perception in terms of visual acuity, visual coverage, and color vision. However, there are not many species that have all these visual traits described, which can constrain our ability to study the evolution of visual systems in birds. To start addressing this gap, we characterized multiple traits of the visual system (visual coverage, visual acuity, centers of acute vision, and color vision) of the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus), one of the most abundant and studied birds in North America. We …

Low Secondary Risks For Captive Coyotes From A Sodium Nitrite Toxic Bait For Invasive Wild Pigs, Nathan P. Snow, Katherine E. Horak, Simon T. Humphrys, Linton D. Staples, David G. Hewitt, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

An acute toxic bait is being developed to deliver micro‐encapsulated sodium nitrite (SN) to stimulate severe methemoglobinemia and humane death for invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa), thereby providing a new tool for reducing their populations. During April 2016, we evaluated sensitivity to SN and outcomes of secondary consumption in the ubiquitous mammalian scavenger, coyote (Canis latrans), to determine secondary risks of consuming carcasses of wild pigs that died from consuming the SN toxic bait. At the National Wildlife Research Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, we first evaluated whether coyotes fed carcasses of domestic pigs killed by consumption of SN …

The Influence Of Signaling Conspecific And Heterospecific Neighbors On Eavesdropper Pressure, Paula A. Trillo, Christopher S. Benson, Michael S. Caldwell, Tiffany L. Lam, Oliver H. Pickering, David M. Logue

Biology Faculty Publications

The study of tradeoffs between the attraction of mates and the attraction of eavesdropping predators and parasites has generally focused on a single species of prey, signaling in isolation. In nature, however, animals often signal from mixed-species aggregations, where interactions with heterospecific group members may be an important mechanism modulating tradeoffs between sexual and natural selection, and thus driving signal evolution. Although studies have shown that conspecific signalers can influence eavesdropper pressure on mating signals, the effects of signaling heterospecifics on eavesdropper pressure, and on the balance between natural and sexual selection, are likely to be different. Here, we review …

A Moral Panic Over Cats, William S. Lynn, Francisco J. Santiago-Ávila, Joann Lindenmayer, John Hadidian, Arian D. Wallach, Barbara J. King

Stray and Feral Animal Populations Collection

Some conservationists believe that free-ranging cats pose an enormous risk to biodiversity and public health and therefore should be eliminated from the landscape by any means necessary. They further claim that those who question the science or ethics behind their arguments are science deniers (merchants of doubt) seeking to mislead the public. As much as we share a commitment to conservation of biodiversity and wild nature, we believe these ideas are wrong and fuel an unwarranted moral panic over cats. Those who question the ecological or epidemiological status of cats are not science deniers, and it is a false analogy …

Effect Of Beaver On Brook Trout Habitat In North Shore, Lake Superior Streams, Kathryn Renik

Biology Graduate Theses

In Minnesota, North American Beavers Castor canadensis (hereafter Beaver) are considered to have an overall negative affect on native Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis. Brook Trout provide a valued and productive sport fishery to the North Shore streams of Lake Superior and since revival of the Beaver population from past trapping and timber harvest, a reexamination of the complex ecological relationship where the two taxa interact is imperative. Suitable Brook Trout habitat is characterized by cold, spring- fed water with silt-free rocky substrate and abundant cover, all of which Beaver may directly, or indirectly, affect. Data collection occurred on 79 (200 …

2018 (30th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

2018 Additions/Deletions to the "Official List of the Birds of Nebraska”: There was one new species added in 2018. Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor) Accidental - Class 1-P. With this addition, the “Official List of the Birds of Nebraska” stands at 463 species.

2018 Changes in Frequency of Occurrence

Changes Involving Nebraska Species Due to Taxonomic Revisions

NOURC Accepted Records (Received in 2018)

NOURC Unaccepted Records (Received in 2018)

The Value Of Inspection Stations For Detecting Nonindigenous Species Lacking Agricultural Significance: The Mexican Treefrog, Smilisca Baudinii Complex (Duméril And Bibron 1841) (Hylidae), Interdicted In Florida, Usa, From A Shipment Of Peppers, Louis A. Somma

Papers in Herpetology

A Mexican Treefrog, Smilisca baudinii, a nonindigenous species, was interdicted for the first time from an imported shipment of peppers. The value of agriculture inspection stations used to make these interdictions is discussed. This is a single cargo interception (Stage 1: Colautti and MacIsaac 2004) and the first record for S. baudinii intercepted in Florida. Currently no evidence suggests that S. baudinii has been successfully introduced into and established in Florida, although this species could survive climatic conditions in the southern part of the state and at the scheduled destination of this shipment.

Cargo transport of alien species is a …

Rcrab: An R Analytics Tool To Visualize And Analyze The Movement Of Horseshoe Crabs In Long Island Sound, Ismael Youssef, Samah Senbel, Jo-Marie Kasinak, Jennifer Mattei

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Mark-recapture programs are important for studying the ecology and population dynamics of wildlife. An R shiny analytics tool was developed to track the movement of horseshoe crabs in Long Island Sound based on tag and resight data. The crabs were tagged and recaptured by volunteers of Project Limulus, a community-based research program. The dataset contains tag and recapture location information for 14,065 horseshoe crabs over 18 years. The dataset was initially cleaned by removing records with missing, duplicate or incorrect data. A new data structure was developed to save the data and simplify processing: Three dimensions were used, one for …

Validation Of A Death Assay For Angiostrongylus Cantonensis Larvae (L3) Using Propidium Iodide In A Rat Model (Rattus Norvegicus), Susan I. Jarvi, John Jacob, Robert T. Sugihara, Israel L. Leinbach, Ina H. Klasner, Lisa M. Kaluna, Kirsten A. Snook, M. Kathleen Howe, Steven H. Jacquier, Ingo Lange, Abigail L. Atkinson, Ashley R. Deane, Chris N. Niebuhr, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Angiostrongylus cantonensis is a pathogenic nematode and the cause of neuroangiostrongyliasis, an eosinophilic meningitis more commonly known as rat lungworm disease. Transmission is thought to be primarily due to ingestion of infective third stage larvae (L3) in gastropods, on produce, or in contaminated water. The gold standard to determine the effects of physical and chemical treatments on the infectivity of A. cantonensis L3 larvae is to infect rodents with treated L3 larvae and monitor for infection, but animal studies are laborious and expensive and also raise ethical concerns. This study demonstrates propidium iodide (PI) to be a reliable marker of …

Contact Rates With Nesting Birds Before And After Invasive Snake Removal: Estimating The Effects Of Trap-Based Control, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Melia G. Nafus, Page E. Klug, Björn Lardner, M.J. Mazurek, Julie A. Savidge, Robert N. Reed

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Invasive predators are responsible for almost 60% of all vertebrate extinctions worldwide with the most vulnerable faunas occurring on islands. The brown treesnake (Boiga irregularis) is a notorious invasive predator that caused the extirpation or extinction of most native forest birds on Guam. The success of avian reintroduction efforts on Guam will depend on whether snake-control techniques sufficiently reduce contact rates between brown treesnakes and reintroduced birds. Mouse-lure traps can successfully reduce brown treesnake populations at local scales. Over a 22-week period both with and without active snake removal, we evaluated snake-trap contact rates for mouse- and bird-lure traps. Bird-lure …

An Evaluation Of The Registration And Use Prospects For Four Candidate Toxicants For Controlling Invasive Mongooses (Herpestes Javanicus Auropunctatus), Emily W. Ruell, Chris N. Niebuhr, Robert T. Sugihara, Shane R. Siers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The eradication or control of invasive small Indian mongooses from islands likely requires toxic baiting when removal by trapping proves insufficient. The one toxic bait currently registered for mongooses in the United States has relatively low palatability and efficacy for mongooses. Developing and registering a new pesticide can be very expensive, while funding for developing toxicants for mongooses is limited. Once registered, use of a toxic bait may be hindered by other factors, such as public opposition to an inhumane toxicant, poorer efficacy than expected, or if the toxic bait is difficult for applicators to apply or store. Therefore, we …

Mixing It Up: The Impact Of Episodic Introgression On The Evolution Of High-Latitude Mesocarnivores, Jocelyn P. Colella

Biology ETDs

At high latitudes, climatic oscillations have triggered repeated episodes of organismal divergence by geographically isolating populations. For terrestrial species, extended isolation in glacial refugia – ice-free regions that enable terrestrial species persistence through glacial maxima – is hypothesized to stimulate allopatric divergence. Alternatively, upon glacial recession, divergent populations expanded from independent glacial refugia and often contacted other diverging populations. In the absence of reproductive isolating mechanisms, this biogeographic process may trigger hybridization and ultimately, gene flow between divergent taxa. My dissertation research aims to understand how these episodic periods of isolation and contact have impacted the evolution of high latitude …

Taxonomic Features And Comparison Of The Gut Microbiome From Two Edible Fungus-Farming Termites (Macrotermes Falciger, M. Natalensis) Harvested In The Vhembe District Of Limpopo, South Africa, Stephanie L. Schnorr, Courney A. Hofman, Shandukani R. Netschifhefhe, Frances D. Duncan, Tanvi P. Honap, Julie Lesnik, Cecil M. Lewis

Anthropology Faculty Research

Background Termites are an important food resource for many human populations around the world, and are a good supply of nutrients. The fungus-farming ‘higher’ termite members of Macrotermitinae are also consumed by modern great apes and are implicated as critical dietary resources for early hominins. While the chemical nutritional composition of edible termites is well known, their microbiomes are unexplored in the context of human health. Here we sequenced the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene of gut microbiota extracted from the whole intestinal tract of two Macrotermes sp. soldiers collected from the Limpopo region of South Africa. Results …

Probability, Populations, Phylogenetics And Hominin Speciation, Niccolo Caldararo

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

A number of recent articles have appeared on the hominin Denisova fossil remains. Many of them focus on attempts to produce DNA sequences from the extracted samples. Often these project mtDNA sequences from the fossil remains of a number of Neandertal fossils and the Denisovans in an attempt to understand the evolution of Mid Pleistocene human ancestors. These papers, introduce a number of problems in the interpretation of speciation in hominins. One concerns the degradation of the ancient DNA and its interpretation as authentic genetic information. Another concerns the idea of “species” versus that of “population” and the use of …

Transmission Dynamics Of Toxoplasma Gondii In Arctic Foxes (Vulpes Lagopus): A Long-Term Mark-Recapture Serologic Study At Karrak Lake, Nunavut, Canada, Emilie Bouchard, Stacey A. Elmore, Ray T. Alisauskas, Gustaf Samelius, Alvin A. Gajadhar, Keaton Schmidt, Sasha Ross, Emily J. Jenkins

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Transmission dynamics of Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite of importance for wildlife and human health, are enigmatic in the Arctic tundra, where free-ranging wild and domestic felid definitive hosts are absent and rarely observed, respectively. Through a multiyear mark-recapture study (2011– 17), serosurveillance was conducted to investigate transmission of T. gondii in Arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus) in the Karrak Lake region, Nunavut, Canada. Sera from adult foxes and fox pups were tested for antibodies to T. gondii by using serologic methods, including the indirect fluorescent antibody test, direct agglutination test, and modified agglutination test. The overall seroprevalence was 39% in adults …

Not All Surveillance Data Are Created Equal—A Multi‐Method Dynamic Occupancy Approach To Determine Rabies Elimination From Wildlife, Amy J. Davis, Jordona D. Kirby, Richard B. Chipman, Kathleen M. Nelson, Tatiana Xifara, Colleen T. Webb, Ryan Wallace, Amy T. Gilbert, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. A necessary component of elimination programmes for wildlife disease is effective surveillance. The ability to distinguish between disease freedom and non‐detection can mean the difference between a successful elimination campaign and new epizootics. Understanding the contribution of different surveillance methods helps to optimize and better allocate effort and develop more effective surveillance programmes.

2. We evaluated the probability of rabies virus elimination (disease freedom) in an enzootic area with active management using dynamic occupancy modelling of 10 years of raccoon rabies virus (RABV) surveillance data (2006–2015) collected from three states in the eastern United States. We estimated detection probability …

Short Term Shifts In Soil Nematode Food Feb Structure And Nutrient Cycling Following Sustainable Soil Management In A California Vineyard, Holly M. Deniston-Sheets

Master's Theses

Evaluating soil health using bioindicator organisms has been suggested as a method of analyzing the long-term sustainability of agricultural management practices. The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of vineyard management strategies on soil food web structure and function, using nematodes as bioindicators by calculating established nematode ecological indices. Three field trials were conducted in a commercial Pinot Noir vineyard in San Luis Obispo, California; the effects of (i) fertilizer type (organic and inorganic), (ii) weed management (herbicide and tillage), and (iii) cover crops (high or low water requirements) on nematode community structure, soil nutrient content, …

Survival, Fidelity, And Dispersal Of Double-Crested Cormorants On Two Lake Michigan Islands, Christopher R. Ayers, Katie C. Hanson-Dorr, Ken Stromborg, Todd W. Arnold, Jacob S. Ivan, Brian S. Dorr

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Colony fidelity and dispersal can have important consequences on the population dynamics of colonial-nesting birds. We studied survival and inter-colony movements of Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus; cormorants) nesting at Spider and Pilot islands, located 9 km apart in western Lake Michigan, during 2008–2014. We used live resighting and dead recovery data from both colonies, plus dead recoveries from throughout North America, in a multistate live and dead encounter model to estimate annual survival, inter-colony movements, plus temporary and permanent emigration to unmonitored sites. Annual survival averaged 0.37 (annual process variation, ˆ = 0.07) for hatch-year, 0.78 (ˆ= 0.08) for secondyear, …

Use Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) And Multispectral Imagery For Quantifying Agricultural Areas Damaged By Wild Pigs, Justin W. Fischer, Kelsey Greiner, Mark W. Lutman, Bryson L. Webber, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause extensive damage to agricultural crops, resulting in lost production and income. A major challenge associated with assessing damage to crops is locating and quantifying damaged areas within agricultural fields. We evaluated a novel method using multispectral high-resolution aerial imagery, collected from sensors mounted on unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and feature extraction techniques to detect and map areas of corn fields damaged by wild pigs in southern Missouri, USA. Damaged areas were extracted from orthomosaics using visible and near-infrared band combinations, an object-based classification approach, and hierarchical learning cycles. To validate estimates we also collected ground …

Sex-Specific Personalities In The Purple Marsh Crab, Jillian Sterman, Jessica Barton, Panagiota Delmedico, Samantha Sweeney

DePaul Discoveries

Animals are considered to possess personalities when individuals differ in behavior, and these differences are consistent between situations. Several studies have identified personalities in diverse groups but less is known about personality variation between the sexes. In this study, we examined variation in two key personality traits (boldness, activity) in female and male purple marsh crabs (Sesarma reticulatum) using a semi-field approach. Specifically, we measured boldness and activity on two consecutive days using the same behavioral assays during each time point. Consistency (personality) was determined using Kendall’s coefficient of concordance based on Spearman correlation coefficients for each behavior. …

Confronting Models With Data: The Challenges Of Estimating Disease Spillover, Paul C. Cross, Diann J. Prosser, Andrew M. Ramey, Ephraim M. Hanks, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

For pathogens known to transmit across host species, strategic investment in disease control requires knowledge about where and when spillover transmission is likely. One approach to estimating spillover is to directly correlate observed spillover events with covariates. An alternative is to mechanistically combine information on host density, distribution and pathogen prevalence to predict where and when spillover events are expected to occur. We use several case studies at the wildlife–livestock disease interface to highlight the challenges, and potential solutions, to estimating spatiotemporal variation in spillover risk. Datasets on multiple host species often do not align in space, time or resolution, …

Typha (Cattail) Invasion In North American Wetlands: Biology, Regional Problems, Impacts, Ecosystem Services, And Management, Sheel Bansal, Shane C. Lishawa, Sue Newman, Brian A. Tangen, Douglas Wilcox, Dennis Albert, Michael J. Anteau, Michael J. Chimney, Ryann L. Cressey, Edward Dekeyser, Kenneth J. Elgersma, Sarah A. Finkelstein, Joanna Freeland, Richard Grosshans, Page E. Klug, Daniel J. Larkin, Beth A. Lawrence, George Linz, Joy Marburger, Gregory Noe, Clint Otto, Nicholas Reo, Jennifer Richards, Curtis Richardson, Leroy Rodgers, Amy J. Schrank, Dan Svedarsky, Steven Travis, Nancy Tuchman, Lisamarie Windham-Myers

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Typha is an iconic wetland plant found worldwide. Hybridization and anthropogenic disturbances have resulted in large increases in Typha abundance in wetland ecosystems throughout North America at a cost to native floral and faunal biodiversity. As demonstrated by three regional case studies, Typha is capable of rapidly colonizing habitats and forming monodominant vegetation stands due to traits such as robust size, rapid growth rate, and rhizomatic expansion. Increased nutrient inputs into wetlands and altered hydrologic regimes are among the principal anthropogenic drivers of Typha invasion. Typha is associated with a wide range of negative ecological impacts to wetland and agricultural …

Predicting The Future: Parental Progeny Investment In Response To Environmental Stress Cues, Leah Gulyas, Jennifer R. Powell

Biology Faculty Publications

Environmental stressors can severely limit the ability of an organism to reproduce as lifespan is decreased and resources are shifted away from reproduction to survival. Although this is often detrimental to the organism’s reproductive fitness, certain other reproductive stress responses may mitigate this effect by increasing the likelihood of progeny survival in the F1 and subsequent generations. Here we review three means by which these progeny may be conferred a competitive edge as a result of stress encountered in the parental generation: heritable epigenetic modifications to nucleotides and histones, simple maternal investments of cytosolic components, and the partially overlapping phenomenon …

Hawk On Wire: Ecopoems By Scott T. Starbuck, Vivian M. Hansen

The Goose

Review of Scott T. Starbuck’s Hawk on Wire: Ecopoems

Heterogeneity In Surface Sensing Suggests A Division Of Labor In Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Populations, Catherine R. Armbuster, Calvin K. Lee, Jessica Parker-Gilham, Jaime De Anda, Aiguo Xia, Kun Zhao, Keiji Murakami, Boo Shan Tseng, Lucas R. Hoffman, Fan Jin, Caroline S. Harwood, Gerard Cl Wong, Matthew R. Parsek

Life Sciences Faculty Research

The second messenger signaling molecule cyclic diguanylate monophosphate (c-di-GMP) drives the transition between planktonic and biofilm growth in many bacterial species. Pseudomonas aeruginosa has two surface sensing systems that produce c-di-GMP in response to surface adherence. Current thinking in the field is that once cells attach to a surface, they uniformly respond by producing c-di-GMP. Here, we describe how the Wsp system generates heterogeneity in surface sensing, resulting in two physiologically distinct subpopulations of cells. One subpopulation has elevated c-di-GMP and produces biofilm matrix, serving as the founders of initial microcolonies. The other subpopulation has low c-di-GMP and engages in …

Extreme Site Fidelity As An Optimal Strategy In An Unpredictable And Homogeneous Environment, Brian D. Gerber, Mevin B. Hooten, Christopher P. Peck, Mindy B. Rice, James H. Gammonley, Anthony D. Apa, Amy J. Davis

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

1. Animal site fidelity structures space use, population demography and ultimately gene flow. Understanding the adaptive selection for site fidelity patterns provides a mechanistic understanding to both spatial and population processes. This can be achieved by linking space use with environmental variability (spatial and temporal) and demographic parameters. However, rarely is the environmental context that drives the selection for site fidelity behaviour fully considered.

2. We use ecological theory to understand whether the spatial and temporal variability in breeding site quality can explain the site fidelity behaviour and demographic patterns of Gunnison sage‐grouse (Centrocercus minimus). We examined female site fidelity …

Spring Field Report, March - May 2019, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

There were many significant reports, including high and low numbers, early and late dates, out-of-range sightings including nesting, and, of course, rarities. High numbers were led by geese; an amazing 1.7 million Snows were estimated by acreage (!) and counts of 10,000 Greater White-fronted and 100,000 Canada Geese were near-record high counts for spring. A bit surprising as record spring counts were 3000 European Starlings and 3000 American White Pelicans. Nightjar surveys by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and others yielded an amazing 40+ Chuck-will’s-widows in the southeast; Ruddy Turnstones put on a show with 85 in Platte Co; 127 …