DOCSLIB.ORG

Swinhoe's Storm-Petrels at Tynemouth: New to Britain and Ireland Mark G

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Swinhoe's Storm-Petrels at Tynemouth: New to Britain and Ireland Mark G Swinhoe's Storm-petrels at Tynemouth: new to Britain and Ireland Mark G. Cubitt The possibility of catching a vagrant species during a ringing session at a site on the Northumberland coast is never far from the back of one's mind during October, particularly when there is an easterly wind blowing. The concept that anything remotely similar could happen when tape-luring small numbers of European Storm-petrels Hydrobates pelagicus would have been considered, at best, fanciful prior to 23rd July 1989. Since that date, there has been an incredible series of captures of what we now know to be Swinhoe's Storm-petrels Oceanodroma monorhis. Three individuals have been involved. The first two were on 23rd and 26th July 1989. The third has, quite amazingly, been caught eight times in five consecutive years: on 6th July 1990, 30th July 1991, 29th July 1992, 21st, 28th and 29th July 1993, and 11th, 23rd and 25th July 1994. Members of our small team take it in turns to watch the nets on the rocky beach at the base of Tynemouth's north pier. Mary Carruthers had noted, with some excitement, a larger bird, stiffer-winged than the familiar European Storm- petrels, circling the nets briefly on 18th July 1989.1 immediately switched the tape to that of the presumed Leach's Storm-petrel O. leucorhoa, but the bird was not seen again, at least not that night. On our next outing, on 23rd July, Adam Hutt and I also saw a larger petrel, but this time it circled the nets once and was then caught. Having rushed over to the net, I was astounded to find that the bird did not have any white on its rump and, even in the darkness of the beach, that its outer wing feathers had white shafts. At our ringing base, in discussion with Les Hall and Keith Regan, it was clear that the bird was of the genus Oceanodroma. We recalled that a Matsudaira's Storm-petrel O. matsudairae had been claimed on a pelagic trip in the Southwest 342 [Brit. Birds 88: 342-348, July 1995] British Birds, vol. 88, no. 7, July 1995 343 Approaches, but we had no documented measurements with which to compare those taken from our bird. All of our captures were of birds attracted to the call of European Storm-petrel rather than that of Leach's. Photographs were taken of all of them (see plates 94- 96 on page 345). They were quite vocal, both prior to being caught and in the hand; we recorded the call (see fig. 1 on page 346). A blood sample was taken from the one captured in 1991. Description The following notes summarise the appearance of all three individuals: General appearance coverts blackish-brown, as remiges. Sooty-brown Oceanodroma storm-petrels. Underparts Upperparts Uniformly sooty-brown, tinged grey. Head and, to a lesser extent, nape, back, rump Underwing-coverts rusty-brown. Axillaries and upperside of tail distinctly smoky-grey. faintly barred buff. Small apparently darker area in front of each Bare parts eye. Bases of outer six primaries with white Bill, legs and feet black. Eye dark. shafts. Pale wing-bar from scapulars and inner Measurements greater coverts through outer median coverts, The measurements taken for each of the birds formed by pale-fringed feathers, to pale caught are shown in table 1. brown carpal covert. Alula and primary Table 1. Measurements (in mm) of the three Swinhoe's Storm-petrels Oceanodroma monorhis caught at Tynemouth in 1989, 1989 and 1990-94, respectively. Feature Bird 1 Bird 2 Bird 3 Wing length 167 166 164 Outer tail length 79 83 78 Inner tail length 61 66 63 Bill length 14.9 14.5 14.5 Bill depth 6.4 - 6.4 Tarsus length - - 24.4 The identification It took over three years to identify these birds positively as Swinhoe's Storm- petrels (Bretagnolle et al. 1991; Cubitt et al. 1992; Dawson 1992). We split the research into three main areas. The first area was plumage and measurements, upon which we based our first published note shortly after the first capture (Carruthers et al. 1989). This stated that they 'were either Swinhoe's Storm- petrels or a close relative'. It was the latter possibility that forced us into looking into vocalisations and DNA sequencing, which have been the other main areas of research. Our birds are very similar in size and structure to the large races of Leach's Storm-petrel, such as the British population. There are some minor size differences, such as tarsus length being greater and bill length and tail length being shorter in proportion to the size of the bird. The two most significant differences are the all-dark rump and the white on the outer six primary-feather shafts. Some races of Leach's do have dark rumps, but these races are much smaller than Swinhoe's. Individuals of the British population can have significant variation in rump coloration, but always exhibit some white. The presence of white primary shafts showing beyond the coverts is 344 Swinhoe's Storm-petrels: new to Britain and Ireland restricted within this family to Swinhoe's and Matsudaira's Storm-petrels. The latter is significantly larger, as are the other Pacific dark-rumped storm-petrels. Our birds' biometrics gave good support to the identification as Swinhoe's, but my measurements of wing length appeared to be at or beyond the extreme of those documented for Swinhoe's, thus causing some concern initially. This, though, appears to be due to differences among recorders in experience and technique of measuring maximum-chord wing lengdis. The second area of research, which took die longest time, was the analysis of cytochrome-b mitochondrial DNA sequences. Through this, we discovered that species within the family, such as Leach's and Swinhoe's, are quite distinct. The analyses also showed that our birds had identical sequences in that part of the gene to those of Swinhoe's from Korea and Russia (Dawson 1992). It is likely that vocalisations provide an important mechanism for storm-petrels to identify the species and sex of another individual in the darkness of a colony. This was the third area of research. We were fortunate that workers in Japan had recently been looking at the vocalisations of both Swinhoe's and Leach's Storm- petrels. This gave us access to recordings that were previously unavailable in the West. More importantiy, they had shown significant differences between the calls of the two species and even between sexes. This enabled them to match a recording that we had made (fig. 1 on page 346) to a sonagram of a female Korean Swinhoe's Storm-petrel. Origins Swinhoe's Storm-petrels are known to breed on islands mainly off Korea and Japan, but also west to China and north to Russia. They migrate westwards, witii the monsoons, into the western Pacific. Some move into the northern Indian Ocean and even into the Red Sea, where die first Western Palearctic record occurred in 1958. This was, perhaps, die route taken by the individual caught on Islote de Benidorm, Spain, in July 1994 (King & Minguez 1994). In order to account for the captures of seven Swinhoe's Storm-petrels in the North Atiantic since 1983, it has been suggested tiiat there may be a small breeding population in die North Atiantic. Our returning bird, however, now certainly of breeding age — but apparently still wandering — may make this theory less likely. Vagrancy is perhaps the more probable source of these birds, although the lack of records in the Western Indian Ocean makes this far from certain. References BRETAGNOLLE, V., CARRUTHERS, M. P., CUBITT, M. G., BIORET, F., & CUILLANDRE, J. P. 1991. Six captures of dark-rumped petrels in the North Eastern Atlantic. Ibis 133: 351-356. CARRUTHERS, M. P., CUBITT, M. G., & HALL, L. 1989. The dark-rumped petrels in Tyne & Wear. Birding World 2: 288-289. CUBITT, M., CARRUTHERS, M. P., & ZINO, F. 1992. Unravelling the mystery of the Tyne petrels. Birding World 5: 438-442. DAWSON, R. 1992. Blood, sweat and petrels. Birding World 5: 443-444. KING, J., & MINGUEZ, E. 1994. Swinhoe's Petrel: the first Mediterranean record. Birding World 7: 271-273. Mark G. Cubitt, 13 Dene Terrace, South Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE3 1QP The inclusion of plates 94- 96 in colour has been subsidised by Carl Zeiss Ltd, sponsor of the British Birds Rarities Committee. Plates 94-96. Female Swinhoe's Storm- petrel Oceanodroma monorhis, Tynemouth: above and right, July 1993 (Mark Cubitt); below, July 1994 (D. Jackson) 346 Swinhoe's Storm-petrels: new to Britain and Ireland Fig. 1. Sonagram of female Swinhoe's Storm-petrel Oceanodroma monorhis captured at Tynemouth in July 1993. EDITORIAL COMMENT Dr David Parkin, Chairman of the British Ornithologists' Union Records Committee, has commented as follows: 'This must be one of the more astonishing developments in Western Palearctic ornithology of recent decades. At several widely separate locations in the northeast Atlantic, and more or less simultaneously, a species was found that appeared to be new to the region. Not only that, but a series of records came from one site in Northumberland, on the shores of what may be the most intensively watched marine habitat in the world. Not a hint of a record in the British literature down the years, and then two in one week, three in 12 months, and a series of recaptures of one bird in successive years! 'The combination of morphology, sonagram analysis and DNA sequencing were sufficient to exclude other species, including the dark-rumped races of Leach's Storm-petrel Oceanodroma leucorhoa, and establish the identity as Swinhoe's Storm-petrel O.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New Species Accepted –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Swinhoe’S Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma Monorhis )
    his is the 20th published report of the ABA Checklist Committee (hereafter, TCLC), covering the period July 2008– July 2009. There were no changes to commit - tee membership since our previous report (Pranty et al. 2008). Kevin Zimmer has been elected to serve his second term (to expire at the end of 2012), and Bill Pranty has been reelected to serve as Chair for a fourth year. During the preceding 13 months, the CLC final - ized votes on five species. Four species were accepted and added to the ABA Checklist , while one species was removed. The number of accepted species on the ABA Checklist is increased to 960. In January 2009, the seventh edition of the ABA Checklist (Pranty et al. 2009) was published. Each species is numbered from 1 (Black-bellied Whistling-Duck) to 957 (Eurasian Tree Sparrow); ancillary numbers will be inserted for all new species, and these numbers will be included in our annual reports. Production of the seventh edi - tion of the ABA Checklist occupied much of Pranty’s and Dunn’s time during the period, and this com - mitment helps to explain the relative paucity of votes during 2008–2009 compared to our other recent an - nual reports. New Species Accepted –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Swinhoe’s Storm-Petrel (Oceanodroma monorhis ). ABA CLC Record #2009-02. One individual, thought to be a juvenile in slightly worn plumage, in the At - lantic Ocean at 3 4°5 7’ N, 7 5°0 5’ W, approximately 65 kilometers east-southeast of Hatteras Inlet, Cape Hat - teras, North Carolina on 2 June 2008.
    [Show full text]
  • Geographic Variation in Leach's Storm-Petrel
    GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN LEACH'S STORM-PETREL DAVID G. AINLEY Point Reyes Bird Observatory, 4990 State Route 1, Stinson Beach, California 94970 USA ABSTRACT.-•A total of 678 specimens of Leach's Storm-Petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) from known nestinglocalities was examined, and 514 were measured. Rump color, classifiedon a scale of 1-11 by comparison with a seriesof reference specimens,varied geographicallybut was found to be a poor character on which to base taxonomic definitions. Significant differences in five size charactersindicated that the presentlyaccepted, but rather confusing,taxonomy should be altered: (1) O. l. beali, O. l. willetti, and O. l. chapmani should be merged into O. l. leucorhoa;(2) O. l. socorroensisshould refer only to the summer breeding population on Guadalupe Island; and (3) the winter breeding Guadalupe population should be recognizedas a "new" subspecies,based on physiological,morphological, and vocal characters,with the proposedname O. l. cheimomnestes. The clinal and continuoussize variation in this speciesis related to oceanographicclimate, length of migration, mobility during the nesting season,and distancesbetween nesting islands. Why oceanitidsfrequenting nearshore waters during nestingare darker rumped than thoseoffshore remains an unanswered question, as does the more basic question of why rump color varies geographicallyin this species.Received 15 November 1979, accepted5 July 1980. DURING field studies of Leach's Storm-Petrels (Oceanodroma leucorhoa) nesting on Southeast Farallon Island, California in 1972 and 1973 (see Ainley et al. 1974, Ainley et al. 1976), several birds were captured that had dark or almost completely dark rumps. The subspecificidentity of the Farallon population, which at that time was O.
    [Show full text]
  • 2010 FINAL MAMU Reportav
    Summary of 2010 Marbled Murrelet Monitoring Surveys In the Santa Cruz Mountains Prepared For: Department of Parks and Recreation Santa Cruz District 303 Big Trees Park Road Felton CA, 95018 Prepared By: Brian Shaw Klamath Wildlife Resources 1760 Kenyon Drive Redding, CA 96001 12/31/2010 Edited for clarity, organization and content by: Portia Halbert ES for California State Parks 12/19/2014 INTRODUCTION This report covers the results of Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) monitoring surveys completed in 2010 for the Santa Cruz District of California State Parks, and is the first of a three-year monitoring effort for the seabird. The surveys took place at Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Portola Redwoods State Park, Butano State Park and San Mateo County Memorial Park. These surveys are carried out in support of and to follow-up data gathered by previous similar studies completed in the Santa Cruz Mountains from years back as far as 1992. It also continues an ongoing effort to study murrelet populations after the Command oil spill that occurred in 1988. METHODOLOGY In previous years, California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has funded this work; at Portola and Big Basin since 1992 and 1995. At Portola, monitoring years included 1992- 1995, 1998, as well as in 2001-2003 and included only one murrelet observation station. The study has been carried out at Big Basin at five survey stations over the years of 1995-1996, 1998, and 2001-2003. During the 1995-1996, and 1998 the monitoring at Big Basin consisted of five surveys at each station during the protocol period.
    [Show full text]
  • Common Birds of the Estero Bay Area
    Common Birds of the Estero Bay Area Jeremy Beaulieu Lisa Andreano Michael Walgren Introduction The following is a guide to the common birds of the Estero Bay Area. Brief descriptions are provided as well as active months and status listings. Photos are primarily courtesy of Greg Smith. Species are arranged by family according to the Sibley Guide to Birds (2000). Gaviidae Red-throated Loon Gavia stellata Occurrence: Common Active Months: November-April Federal Status: None State/Audubon Status: None Description: A small loon seldom seen far from salt water. In the non-breeding season they have a grey face and red throat. They have a long slender dark bill and white speckling on their dark back. Information: These birds are winter residents to the Central Coast. Wintering Red- throated Loons can gather in large numbers in Morro Bay if food is abundant. They are common on salt water of all depths but frequently forage in shallow bays and estuaries rather than far out at sea. Because their legs are located so far back, loons have difficulty walking on land and are rarely found far from water. Most loons must paddle furiously across the surface of the water before becoming airborne, but these small loons can practically spring directly into the air from land, a useful ability on its artic tundra breeding grounds. Pacific Loon Gavia pacifica Occurrence: Common Active Months: November-April Federal Status: None State/Audubon Status: None Description: The Pacific Loon has a shorter neck than the Red-throated Loon. The bill is very straight and the head is very smoothly rounded.
    [Show full text]
  • AOS Classification Committee – North and Middle America Proposal Set 2018-B 17 January 2018
    AOS Classification Committee – North and Middle America Proposal Set 2018-B 17 January 2018 No. Page Title 01 02 Split Fork-tailed Swift Apus pacificus into four species 02 05 Restore Canada Jay as the English name of Perisoreus canadensis 03 13 Recognize two genera in Stercorariidae 04 15 Split Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) into two species 05 19 Split Pseudobulweria from Pterodroma 06 25 Add Tadorna tadorna (Common Shelduck) to the Checklist 07 27 Add three species to the U.S. list 08 29 Change the English names of the two species of Gallinula that occur in our area 09 32 Change the English name of Leistes militaris to Red-breasted Meadowlark 10 35 Revise generic assignments of woodpeckers of the genus Picoides 11 39 Split the storm-petrels (Hydrobatidae) into two families 1 2018-B-1 N&MA Classification Committee p. 280 Split Fork-tailed Swift Apus pacificus into four species Effect on NACC: This proposal would change the species circumscription of Fork-tailed Swift Apus pacificus by splitting it into four species. The form that occurs in the NACC area is nominate pacificus, so the current species account would remain unchanged except for the distributional statement and notes. Background: The Fork-tailed Swift Apus pacificus was until recently (e.g., Chantler 1999, 2000) considered to consist of four subspecies: pacificus, kanoi, cooki, and leuconyx. Nominate pacificus is highly migratory, breeding from Siberia south to northern China and Japan, and wintering in Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The other subspecies are either residents or short distance migrants: kanoi, which breeds from Taiwan west to SE Tibet and appears to winter as far south as southeast Asia.
    [Show full text]
  • Summary of 2010 Marbled Murrelet Monitoring Surveys in the Santa Cruz Mountains
    Summary of 2010 Marbled Murrelet Monitoring Surveys In the Santa Cruz Mountains Prepared For: Department of Parks and Recreation Santa Cruz District 303 Big Trees Park Road Felton CA, 95018 Prepared By: Brian Shaw Klamath Wildlife Resources 1760 Kenyon Drive Redding, CA 96001 12/31/2010 INTRODUCTION This report covers the results of Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) monitoring surveys completed in 2010 for the Santa Cruz District of the California State Parks, and is the first of a three-year monitoring effort for the seabird. The surveys took place at Big Trees State Park, Portola Redwood State Park, Butano State Park and San Mateo County Memorial Park. These surveys are carried out in support of and to follow-up similar data taken by previous similar studies completed here in the during 2003 and in previous years. It also continues an ongoing effort to study murrelet populations after the oil spill that occurred nearby in 1988. METHODOLOGY In previous years, California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) has funded this work; at Portola and Big Basin since 1992 and 1995. At Portola, monitoring years included 1992- 1995, 1998, as well as in 2001-2003 and included only one murrelet observation station. The study has been carried out at Big Basin at five survey stations over the years of 1995-1996, 1998, and 2001-2003. During the 1995-1996, and 1998 the monitoring at Big Basin consisted of five surveys at each station during the protocol period. Coverage was minimized during the 2001-2003 years, with just three surveys annually completed at each observing station from mid-June to late-July, with two in July.
    [Show full text]
  • Roosting Behaviour of Marsh and Montagu´S Harriers During Migration
    Roosting behaviour of Marsh and Montagu´s Harriers during migration ANNERIEK VAN GASTEREN SUPERVISOR: RAYMOND KLAASSEN Master project RuG Migratory roosting behaviour of Harriers Anneriek van Gasteren TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Summary ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 3 Roosting behaviour during migration ........................................................................................... 4 Research questions ............................................................................................................................ 5 Citizen science ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Material and methods ............................................................................................................................... 7 Data collection ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Identifying nightroost during migratory period ......................................................................... 7 Scoring
    [Show full text]
  • SPECIES REPORT for ASHY STORM-PETREL (Oceanodroma Homochroa)
    1 SPECIES REPORT FOR ASHY STORM-PETREL (Oceanodroma homochroa) PHOTO CREDIT: ILANA NIMZ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Bay-Delta Fish and Wildlife Office, Sacramento, California 9/16/13 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The ashy storm-petrel (Oceanodroma homochroa) is a small seabird whose known at-sea distribution ranges from about the California-Oregon Border to Islas San Benitos, Mexico. The 32 known breeding sites of the ashy storm-petrel stretch from Point Cabrillo, Mendocino County, California to Islas Todos Santos Island, Ensenada, Mexico. More than 90 percent of the population breeds in two population centers at Southeast (SE) Farallon Island and in the California Channel Islands. Anacapa, San Miguel, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Clemente, San Nicholas, Santa Barbara, and Santa Catalina Islands comprise the Channel Islands. Ashy storm-petrels occur at their breeding colonies nearly year-round and occur in greater numbers from February through October. The ashy storm-petrel feeds at night on euphausiids, other krill, decapods, larval lanternfish, fish eggs, young squid, and spiny lobster. Previous Federal Actions The purpose of this species report is to provide the best available scientific and commercial information about the species so that we can evaluate whether or not the species warrants protection under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act or ESA). On August 9, 2009, the Service announced its 12-month finding that found, after reviewing the best available scientific and commercial information, listing the ashy storm-petrel was not warranted. The Center for Biological Diversity challenged this decision in the District Court of the Northern District of California on October 25, 2010.
    [Show full text]
  • Ornithology 101 Part 1 – Taxonomy
    Ornithology 101 Part 1 – Taxonomy By Robert G. Fisher It is difficult to be a birder for long without wanting to know more about Ornithology. Our on- line text accessed by the links below provides the information we think beginning and intermediate birders need to start learning the science of studying birds. We call it “Ornithology 101" because it is just a beginning. ¹ I have drawn heavily on the following texts in preparing this course: Frank B. Gill, Ornithology, Second edition, W. H. Freeman & Co., 1994; J. Van Tyne & A. Berger, Fundamentals of Ornithology, John Wiley & Sons., 1961. Persons who want a more thorough grounding are encouraged to study the Gill text in conjunction with my written lectures. I Taxonomy and Nomenclature Experienced birders occasionally throw around Latin-sounding words like “Procellariforms” and “Icterids.” Sometimes they do it to show off, but more often it is just a shorthand way of designating a grouping of birds. For example, rather than say, “We may see birds in the family of auks, murres, puffins, guillemots, dovekies, auklets and murrelets on our pelagic trip today,” a knowledgeable birder could say, simply, “We may see alcids today.” He means that some of the birds seen on the ocean trip may belong to the family, “Alcidae,” which includes all of the auks, murres, puffins, guillemots, dovekies, auklets and murrelets. If you want to understand the talk of experienced birders, you need to have a basic knowledge of bird taxonomy, the science of classifying and naming birds. The Binomial System If you took high school General Science or Biology, you may remember that every animal and plant has a two-part Latin name according to the “binomial system.” The Swedish naturalist, Linnaeus, founded it in the 18th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Department of the Interior
    Wednesday, March 25, 2009 Part II Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service 50 CFR Part 17 Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding on a Petition To List the Yellow-Billed Loon as Threatened or Endangered; Proposed Rules VerDate Nov<24>2008 01:29 Mar 25, 2009 Jkt 217001 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 4717 Sfmt 4717 E:\FR\FM\25MRP2.SGM 25MRP2 PWALKER on PROD1PC71 with PROPOSALS2 12932 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 56 / Wednesday, March 25, 2009 / Proposed Rules DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR scientific and commercial information scientific or commercial information to that listing may be warranted, we make indicate that a listing may be warranted Fish and Wildlife Service a finding within 12 months of the date and announced that a status review of receipt of the petition on whether the would be promptly commenced. In that 50 CFR Part 17 petitioned action is: (a) Not warranted, notice we announced the opening of a [FWS–R7–ES–2009–0133; MO9221050083– (b) warranted, or (c) warranted, but that 60-day information collection period B2] immediate proposal of a regulation and invited the public to submit to us implementing the petitioned action is any pertinent information concerning Endangered and Threatened Wildlife precluded by other pending proposals to the status of or threats to this species. and Plants; 12-Month Finding on a determine whether species are Approximately 28,000 comments were Petition To List the Yellow-Billed Loon threatened or endangered, and received during the information as Threatened or Endangered expeditious progress is being made to collection period.
    [Show full text]
  • Gavia Immer) in the Upper Great Lakes
    Species Conservation Assessment for the Common Loon (Gavia immer) in the Upper Great Lakes USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region Issue Date: September 2011 Prepared by: Keren B. Tischler Common Coast Research & Conservation P.O. Box 202 Hancock, MI 49930 Produced for: Ottawa National Forest E6248 US 2 Ironwood , MI 49938 (906) 932-1330 (Voice) (906) 932- 0301 (TDD) www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa DISCLAIMER This Conservation Assessment was prepared to compile the published and unpublished information on the subject taxon or community; or this document was prepared by another organization and provides information to serve as a Conservation Assessment for the Eastern Region of the Forest Service. It does not represent a management decision by the U.S. Forest Service. Though the best scientific information available was used and subject experts were consulted in preparation of this document, it is expected that new information will arise. In the spirit of continuous learning and adaptive management, if you have information that will assist in conserving the subject taxon, please contact the Eastern Region of the Forest Service Threatened and Endangered Species Program at 626 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 580 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at 202/720-2600 (voice and TDD).
    [Show full text]
  • Factors Affecting Foraging and Reproductive Success of Kittlitz's
    Factors affecting foraging and reproductive success of Kittlitz’s Plover (Charadrius pecuarius TEMMINCK) at two soda lakes in eastern Rift Valley, Kenya BY OLIVER NASIRWA BSc, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya MSc, University of East Anglia, Norwich, United Kingdom A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI IN FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS FOR AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ZOOLOGY 2015 i CONTENTS CONTENTS........................................................................................................ i LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................. ix LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... xi DECLARATION ............................................................................................... xv DEDICATION ................................................................................................. xvi ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. xv ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................... 1 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS ........................................................................ 4 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW .......................... 5 1.1 General introduction ................................................................................ 5 1.2 Waterbirds and habitat quality ................................................................
    [Show full text]