Using Long-Term Volunteer Records to Examine Dormouse (Muscardinusavellanarius) Nestbox Selection.

Within ecology, there are unanswered questions about species-habitat interactions, which could potentially be resolved by a pragmatic analysis of a long-term volunteer-collected dataset. Here, we analysed 18 years of volunteer-collected data from a UK dormouse nestbox monitoring programme to determine the influence of habitat variables on nestbox choice by common dormice (Muscardinusavellanarius). We measured a range of habitat variables in a coppiced woodland in Gloucestershire, UK, and analysed these in relation to dormouse nestbox occupancy records (by dormice, other small mammals, and birds) collected by volunteers. While some characteristics of the woodland had changed over 18 years, simple transformation of the data and interpretation of the results indicated that the dataset was informative. Using stepwise regressions, multiple environmental and ecological factors were found to determine nestbox selection. Distance from the edge of the wood was the most influential (this did not change over 18 years), with boxes in the woodland interior being selected preferentially. There was a significant negative relationship with the presence of ferns (indicative of damp shady conditions). The presence of oak (a long-lived species), and the clumped structural complexity of the canopy were also important factors in the final model. There was no evidence of competition between dormice and birds or other mammals. The results provide greater understanding of artificial dormouse nest-site requirements and indicate that, in terms of habitat selection, long-term volunteer-collected datasets contribute usefully to understanding the requirements of species with an important conservation status

Breeding ecology and behavior of the Hawaiian Hawk

The Hawaiian Hawk or Ilo (Buteo solitarius) is a medium-sized, broad-winged buteonine en- demic to the Hawaiian Islands. Although this hawk was believed to be threatened with extinction and included on the Endangered Species List in 1967, little was known about its population status or breeding ecology at the time of the listing decision. Information about the distribution, abundance, and biology of the Hawaiian Hawk is anecdotal (Banko 1980), with the exception of systematic surveys by Scott et al. (1986) and Hall et al. (1997). Fossils of Hawaiian Hawks have been found on Hawaii, Molokai, and Kauai (Olson and James 1997), and there have been eight documented observations of the species on the islands of Kauai, Oahu, and Maui since 1778 (Banko 1980, Olson 1990). Since ornithologists have studied the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Hawks have nested only on the island of Hawaii from sea level to 2,600 m (Banko 1980, Scott et al. 1986). The Hawaiian Hawk is among the most sexually dimorphic of the world\u27s buteonine raptors (Paton et al. 1994). Objectives of the present study were to quantify nesting habitat, breeding behavior and chronology, nest success, diet, and other factors affect- ing reproduction

Key seabird areas in southern New England identified using a community occupancy model

Seabirds are of conservation concern, and as new potential risks to seabirds are arising, the need to provide unbiased estimates of species\u27 distributions is growing. We applied community occupancy models to detection/non-detection data collected from repeated aerial striptransect surveys conducted in 2 large study plots off southern New England, USA; one off the coast of Rhode Island and the other in Nantucket Sound. A total of 17 seabird species were observed at least once in each study plot. We found that detection varied by survey date and effort for most species and the average detection probability across species was less than 0.4. We estimated the influence of water depth, sea surface temperature, and sea surface chl a concentration on species-specific occupancy. Diving species showed large differences between the 2 study plots in their predicted winter distributions, which were largely explained by water depth acting as a stronger predictor of occupancy in Rhode Island than in Nantucket Sound. Conversely, similarities between the 2 study plots in predicted winter distributions of surface-feeding species were explained by sea surface temperature or chlorophyll a concentration acting as predictors of these species\u27 occupancy in both study plots. We predicted the number of species at each site using the observed data in order to detect \u27hot-spots\u27 of seabird diversity and use in the 2 study plots. These results provide new information on detection of species, areas of use, and relationships with environmental variables that will be valuable for biologists and planners interested in seabird conservation in the region