Spring is really here in Laurel, MD. The weather has turned warmer, the trees are blooming, and the fields have brightened to that perfect spring green. Current whooping crane egg production is at 19 eggs from seven producing females, with seven eggs known to be fertile. The crew is especially pleased that one of the collected eggs is from "Mrs. Jack". This 15-year-old female had produced one egg a year for the last two years, but unfortunately, had broken both. This year, she broke her first egg, but incubated the second one, so the crew was able to rescue it. Also, in previous years, she's produced her single egg clutches either late in the season, or in the middle. This year, she's started the breeding season at the same time as everyone else, and with her first two-egg clutch. It's too early to say if the rescued egg is fertile or not. Having Mrs. Jack come into production is especially rewarding since, back in 1993, she suffered from a serious ailment that required round-the-clock care.

Good news from Florida: There are at least five active whooper nests in Florida, and there are two chicks currently surviving. One of the pairs rearing a chick is Lucky's parents. Recent rains in Florida have improved conditions there.

Good news from Wisconsin. All 16 whoopers who migrated behind an ultralight on the 2002 migration have survived the winter at Florida's Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge. Fourteen of them have already completed the migration from Florida to Wisconsin unassisted. The remaining two birds are en route, but traveling separately. The five whoopers from the 2001 migration have also successfully survived the winter in Florida and have returned to Wisconsin. To read about the northern migration in more depth, you can go to the International Crane Foundation's website at:

Contact Kathleen O’Malley, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5755

Dan McAuley, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center (PWRC), Orono, ME, gave a slide presentation on "Ecology and Management of American Woodcock" to the members of the Pine Tree Arboretum, in Augusta, ME on Tuesday, April 16. The life history of this FWS species is of significant concern. McAuley discussed the status of this declining species, possible causes of the decline, and techniques for managing habitat to benefit this and other early successional species. He highlighted PWRC's long term research association with Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge, as well as recent collaborative research with Moosehorn, USFWS-R5, state wildlife agencies from ME, NH, VT, and PA, Dartmouth College, the Wildlife Management Institute, and the VT National Guard investigating survival and sources of mortality during the fall.

Contact Daniel McAuley, Orono, ME, 207-581-3357

The public is invited to attend an elderhostel lecture by Patuxent's Chandler Robbins at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland at 7 p.m. on April 28. "A year in the life of a Neotropical migrant" will track the environmental challenges faced by a Wood Thrush on its nesting ground, its Latin American wintering home, and along its migration route.

Contact Chandler Robbins, Laurel, MD 301-497-5641

Robbins to Give Banquet Address at Tennessee Ornithological Society Annual Meeting

On May 3, Dr. Chandler Robbins will give the banquet address at the annual meeting of the Tennessee Ornithological Society in Knoxville. His title is "Survival strategies of wintering migratory songbirds in the tropics."

Contact Chandler Robbins, Laurel, MD 301-497-5641

Hines and Nichols Among Authors of 
"Sexual Selection Affects Local Extinction and Turnover in Bird Communities"

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science selection on Sexual Selection Affects Local Extinction and Turnover in Bird Communities, was contributed by PWRC authors James E. Hines and James D. Nichols; (citation Paul F. Doherty, Jr., Gabriele Sorci, J. Andrew Royle, James E. Hines, James D. Nichols, and Thierry Boulinier;) Predicting extinction risks has become a central goal for conservation and evolutionary biologists interested in population and community dynamics.Several factors have been put forward to explain risks of extinction, including ecological and life history characteristics of individuals. For instance, factors that affect the balance between natality and mortality can have profound effects on population persistence. Sexual selection has been identified as one such factor. Populations under strong sexual selection experience a number of costs ranging from increased predation and parasitism to enhanced sensitivity to environmental and demographic stochasticity. These findings have led to the prediction that local extinction rates should be higher for species or populations with intense sexual selection. We tested this prediction by analyzing the dynamics of natural bird communities at a continental scale over a period of 21 years (1975–1996), using relevant statistical tools. In agreement with the theoretical prediction, we found that sexual selection increased risks of local extinction (dichromatic birds had on average a 23% higher local extinction rate than monochromatic species). However, despite higher local extinction probabilities, the number of dichromatic species did not decrease over the period considered in this study. This pattern was caused by higher local turnover rates of dichromatic species, resulting in relatively stable communities for both groups of species. Our results suggest that these communities function as metacommunities, with frequent local extinctions followed by colonization. Anthropogenic factors impeding dispersal might therefore have a significant impact on the global persistence of sexually selected species.

Contact James Nichols, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5660

Nichols and Colleagues Interviewed by National Geographic in article entitled "Are Flashy Male Birds Threats to their own Species?"

National Geographic, April 8th edition asked, "Are Flashy Male Birds Threats to Their Own Species?" Using a novel approach for analyzing North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data, Paul Doherty (Wildlife Ecologist at Colorado State University) and colleagues, including Jim Nichols of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, were interviewed regarding their latest study. Doherty stated that bird species whose males and females differ in color, the guys with the brightest feathers tends to have the greatest lady luck. This natural mating game however puts the entire location population at risk of dying out, according to this new study. The findings confirm the idea that the extraordinary lengths an animal will go to woo a mate, such as the peacock who spends time and energy to maintain his extravagant tail feathers, comes at a price in terms of survival. Jim Nichols explains that we have species perhaps winking out more frequently, but at least in North American populations they seem to be coming back again by colonization events. According to their study, bird species whose males and females differ in color have a 23 percent higher location extinction rate then do species whose males and females do not differ in color.

Contact James Nichols, Laurel, MD, 301-497-5660

The cover-story appearing in the March issue of BioScience, with lead author USGS scientist David H. Ellis, discusses 15 experiments from 1993-2002, wherein the authors led cranes, geese, or swans on their first southward migration with either ultralight aircraft or vehicles on the ground. The most important lessons learned from these experiments are that juvenile geese, swans, and cranes can be readily trained to follow ultralight aircraft or ground vehicles over hundreds of kilometers, and that, under favorable meteorological conditions, single flights can extend to 100 km and sometimes beyond. These experiments also reveal that most will return north (and south) in subsequent migrations unassisted. The full citation for this article is: D. H. Ellis, W. J. L. Sladen, W. A. Lishman, K. R. Clegg, J. W. Duff, G. F. Gee, and J. C. Lewis. 2003. Motorized migrations: the future or mere fantasy? BioScience 53(3): 260-264.

Contact David H. Ellis, Tucson, AZ, 520-896-3226

Blums, P., J. D. Nichols, M. S. Lindberg, J. E. Hines, and A. Mednis. 2003. Journal of Animal Ecology 72:292-307. We used up to 35 years of capture-recapture data from nearly 3300 individual female ducks nesting on Engure Marsh, Latvia, and multistate modelling to test predictions about the influence of environmental, habitat and management factors on breeding dispersal probability within the marsh. Analyses based on observed dispersal distances of common pochards and tufted ducks provided no evidence that breeding success in year t influenced dispersal distance between t and t + 1. Breeding dispersal distances (year t to t + 1) of pochards and tufted ducks were associated with a delay in relative nest initiation dates in year t + 1. The delay was greater for pochards (c. 4 days) than for tufted ducks (c. 2 days) when females dispersed > 0.8 km. Northern shovelers and tufted ducks moved from a large island to small islands at low water levels and from small islands to the large island at high water levels before the construction of elevated small islands (1960-82). Following this habitat management (1983-94). Breeding fidelity was extremely high and not influenced by water level in the marsh for either species. Because pochard nesting habitats in black-headed gull colonies were saturated during the entire study period, nesting females moved into and out of colonies with similar probabilities. Local survival probabilities and incubation body masses were higher for both yearlings (SY) and adults (ASY) nesting within gull colonies, suggesting that these females were of better quality than females nesting outside of the colonies. Tufted ducks showed higher probabilities of moving from islands to emergent marshes when water levels were higher both before and after habitat management. However, rates of movement for a given water level were higher during the period before management than after. Both pochards and tufted ducks exhibited asymmetric movement with respect to proximity to water, with higher movement probabilities to near-water nesting locations than away from these locations. Multistate capture-recapture models provided analyses that were useful in investigating sources of variation in breeding dispersal probabilities.