Tree cavity use by Chimney Swifts: implications for forestry and population recovery

Chimney Swifts used at least 13 different deciduous and coniferous tree species. All of the trees were greater than 0.5 m diameter at breast height (DBH) and were described as hollow or having cavities. Nest or roost tree height was 12.7 ± 7.0 m (mean ± SD; range: 3.6-28.0 m; n = 25) and DBH was 1.0 m ± 0.5 m (range 0.5-2.1 m; n = 21). According to our description of used trees, the number of suitably hollow Chimney Swift nest or roost trees may be two to three times higher, although still rare, in most unlogged compared to logged hardwood forests. Whether the current total supply of suitable nest or roost trees is sufficient to carry the anticipated increase in use by Chimney Swifts as chimney habitat is modified or deteriorates is unknown. Monitoring the frequency of use of tree cavities by nesting and roosting Chimney Swifts over time, and more robustly quantifying the availability of suitable tree cavities in different forest types for nesting and roosting Chimney Swifts, particularly in unlogged versus logged forests, are fruitful areas for future research. . D'après la description des arbres occupés, le nombre d'arbres creux convenables pour la nidification ou le repos du Martinet ramoneur pourrait être de 2 à 3 fois plus élevé -quoique ces arbres sont quand même rares -dans la plupart des forêts de feuillus non-récoltées, comparativement aux forêts récoltées. Nous ne savons pas si la quantité actuelle d'arbres propices est suffisante pour satisfaire l'utilisation accrue anticipée par les Martinets ramoneurs vu la détérioration ou la destruction des cheminées. Le suivi temporel de la fréquence d'utilisation des cavités d'arbres par les martinets pour y nicher ou y dormir et une meilleure quantification de la disponibilité de cavités d'arbres propices dans différents types de forêts, en particulier les forêts intactes versus récoltées, sont des avenues de recherche prometteuses. Utilisation de cavités d'arbres par le Martinet ramoneur : incidence sur les plans de l'exploitation forestière et du rétablissement des population

Crop Updates 2005 - Geraldton

This session covers seventeen papers from different authors 2005 Seasonal Outlook, David Stephens and Nicola Telcik, Department of Agriculture Horses for Courses – using the best tools to manage climate risk, Cameron Weeks, Mingenew-Irwin Group / Planfarm and Richard Quinlan, Planfarm Agronomy Global influences driving Australian agriculture, Tony Harman, Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Wheat yield and quality improvements – where have they come from and can we have more? Wal Anderson, Department of Agriculture Rotations for nematode management, Vivien A. Vanstone, Sean J. Kelly, Helen F. Hunter and Mena C. Gilchrist, Department of Agriculture Integrate strategies to manage stripe rust risk, Ciara Beard, Geoff Thomas, Robert Loughman, Kith Jayasena and Manisha Shenkar, Department of Agriculture Frequency of herbicide resistance in wild radish populations across the WA wheatbelt, Dr Michael Walsh, Mechelle Owen and Prof. Stephen Powels, University of Western Australia The incidence and severity of wild radish resistance in the NAR – results from an in-situ survey, Rob Grima and Andrew Blake, Elders Limited Stubble management: the pros and cons of different methods, Bill Bowden, Department of Agriculture, Mike Collins WANTFA Effectiveness of Zinc Application Methods in Wheat, Luigi Moreschi, CSBP Know your Mo, Douglas Hamilton, Department of Agriculture Atrazine contamination of groundwater in the agricultural region of Western Australia, Russell Speed1, Neil Rothnie2, John Simons1, Ted Spadek2, and John Moore1, 1Department of Agriculture, 2Chemistry Centre (W.A.) Comparison of canola varieties in the Northern Agricultural Region in 2004, Graham Walton Department of Agriculture Pasture rotations are a promising option for sandplain production, Nadine Eva, Department of Agriculture Zone management can improve profit on sandplain, Bindi Webb, Damian Shepherd, Department of Agriculture, David Forrester, Davejeff Farms, casuarinas via Geraldton, Peter Tozer, Department of Agriculture Crop leftovers: what’s in stubble for sheep? Roy Butler and Keith Croker, Department of Agriculture Realising Rural Equity, Nathan Windebank, Australian Agricultural Contracts Limite

Current and emerging developments in subseasonal to decadal prediction

Weather and climate variations of subseasonal to decadal timescales can have enormous social, economic and environmental impacts, making skillful predictions on these timescales a valuable tool for decision makers. As such, there is a growing interest in the scientific, operational and applications communities in developing forecasts to improve our foreknowledge of extreme events. On subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) timescales, these include high-impact meteorological events such as tropical cyclones, extratropical storms, floods, droughts, and heat and cold waves. On seasonal to decadal (S2D) timescales, while the focus remains broadly similar (e.g., on precipitation, surface and upper ocean temperatures and their effects on the probabilities of high-impact meteorological events), understanding the roles of internal and externally-forced variability such as anthropogenic warming in forecasts also becomes important. The S2S and S2D communities share common scientific and technical challenges. These include forecast initialization and ensemble generation; initialization shock and drift; understanding the onset of model systematic errors; bias correct, calibration and forecast quality assessment; model resolution; atmosphere-ocean coupling; sources and expectations for predictability; and linking research, operational forecasting, and end user needs. In September 2018 a coordinated pair of international conferences, framed by the above challenges, was organized jointly by the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) and the World Weather Research Prograame (WWRP). These conferences surveyed the state of S2S and S2D prediction, ongoing research, and future needs, providing an ideal basis for synthesizing current and emerging developments in these areas that promise to enhance future operational services. This article provides such a synthesis

Modeling detection probability to improve marsh bird surveys in southern Canada and the Great Lakes states

Marsh birds are notoriously elusive, with variation in detection probability across species, regions, seasons, and different times of day and weather. Therefore, it is important to develop regional field survey protocols that maximize detections, but that also produce data for estimating and analytically adjusting for remaining differences in detections. We aimed to improve regional field survey protocols by estimating detection probability of eight elusive marsh bird species throughout two regions that have ongoing marsh bird monitoring programs: the southern Canadian Prairies (Prairie region) and the southern portion of the Great Lakes basin and parts of southern Québec (Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region). We accomplished our goal using generalized binomial N-mixture models and data from ~22,300 marsh bird surveys conducted between 2008 and 2014 by Bird Studies Canada's Prairie, Great Lakes, and Québec Marsh Monitoring Programs. Across all species, on average, detection probability was highest in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region from the beginning of May until mid-June, and then fell throughout the remainder of the season until the end of June; was lowest in the Prairie region in mid-May and then increased throughout the remainder of the season until the end of June; was highest during darkness compared with light; and did not vary significantly according to temperature (range: 0-30°C), cloud cover (0%-100%), or wind (0-20 kph), or during morning versus evening. We used our results to formulate improved marsh bird survey protocols for each region. Our analysis and recommendations are useful and contribute to conservation of wetland birds at various scales from local single-species studies to the continental North American Marsh Bird Monitoring Program

Quality of mature aspen and maple forests for breeding Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius).

Mature aspen (genus Populus L..) and maple (genus Acer L.) forests appear to be high-quality breeding habitat for Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius (L., 1766)). To explore some of the mechanisms that influence quality of the breeding habitat, we measured demographic and breeding resources in four forest stands each of 95-year-old quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) and 182-year-old sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, from 2007 to 2009. Population density was higher, egg laying earlier, clutches larger, hatching success greater, and per capita and population fledgling production higher in maple stands compared with aspen stands. Longer nest-building and prelaying stages in aspen stands delayed egg laying by 5 days relative to maple stands. The delay in egg laying in aspen stands may have been caused by lower quality sap resources, which then resulted in lower productivity. Adults delivered smaller food loads to nests in aspen stands than in maple stands, which may have increased nestling mortality in aspen stands. Although per capita fledgling production was lower in aspen stands than in maple stands, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers in both forests were able to replace themselves, suggesting that mature deciduous and mixed-deciduous forests, in general, are high-quality breeding habitat for this sapsucker. Les forêts matures de peupliers (le genre Populus L.) et d\u27érables (le genre Acer L.) semblent fournir un habitat de reproduction de haute qualité au pic maculé (Sphyrapicus varius (L., 1766)). Avec comme objectif d\u27explorer certains des mécanismes qui influencent la qualité de l\u27habitat de reproduction, nous avons mesuré les ressources démographiques et reproductives dans quatre peuplements forestiers de peupliers faux-trembles (Populus tremuloides Michx.) de 95 ans et d\u27érables à sucre (Acer saccharum Marsh.) de 182 ans dans le Parc provincial Algonquin, Ontario, de 2007 à 2009. La densité de population est plus élevée, la ponte plus hâtive, les couvées plus grandes, le succès de l\u27éclosion plus élevé et la production de petits à l\u27envol plus importante dans l\u27ensemble de la population et par individu dans les peuplements d\u27érables que dans ceux de peupliers. La durée plus longue des étapes de la construction du nid et d\u27avant la ponte dans les peuplements de peupliers retarde la ponte de 5 jours par rapport aux peuplements d\u27érables. Ce délai de la ponte dans les peuplements de peupliers peut être dû aux ressources de sève de moins bonne qualité, ce qui mène à une productivité réduite. Les adultes des peuplements de peupliers rapportent au nid des charges alimentaires plus petites que ceux des peuplements d\u27érables, ce qui peut augmenter la mortalité des petits au nid dans les peuplements de peupliers. Bien que la production de petits à l\u27envol par individu soit plus faible dans les peuplements de peupliers que dans ceux d\u27érables, les pics maculés des deux forêts sont capables d\u27assurer leur remplacement, ce qui laisse croire qu\u27en général les forêts matures décidues et mixtes-décidues représentent des habitats de reproduction de haute qualité pour ce pic

Data from: Using citizen science monitoring data in species distribution models to inform isotopic assignment of migratory connectivity in wetland birds

Stable isotopes have been used to estimate migratory connectivity in many species. Estimates are often greatly improved when coupled with species distribution models (SDMs), which temper estimates in relation to occurrence. SDMs can be constructed using from point locality data from a variety of sources including extensive monitoring data typically collected by citizen scientists. However, one potential issue with SDM is that these data oven have sampling bias. To avoid this potential bias, an approach using SDMs based on marsh bird monitoring program data collected by citizen scientists and other participants following protocols specifically designed to maximize detections of species of interest at locations representative of the species range. We then used the SDMs to refine isotopic assignments of breeding areas of autumn-migrating and wintering Sora (Porzana carolina), Virginia Rails (Rallus limicola), and Yellow Rails (Coturnicops noveboracensis) based on feathers collected from individuals caught at various locations in the United States from Minnesota south to Louisiana and South Carolina. Sora were assigned to an area that included much of the western U.S. and prairie Canada, covering parts of the Pacific, Central, and Mississippi Flyways. Yellow Rails were assigned to a broad area along Hudson and James Bay in northern Manitoba and Ontario, as well as smaller parts of Quebec, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, including parts of the Mississippi and Atlantic Flyways. Virginia Rails were from several discrete areas, including parts of Colorado, New Mexico, the central valley of California, and southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba in the Pacific and Central Flyways. Our study demonstrates extensive data from organized citizen science monitoring programs are especially useful for improving isotopic assignments of migratory connectivity in birds, which can ultimately lead to better informed management decisions and conservation actions