The daily pattern of autumn bird migration in the northern Sahara

The temporal pattern of migration by passerine birds during the night, and their arrival during the day at the Egyptian coast and in the northern Sahara Desert was investigated. The mean direction of nocturnal migration at the coast was south-southeast, while at all desert sites it was south-southwest.
Birds arrived at the Egyptian coast only during the second half of the night which is explained by the fact that no birds could have taken off from the Mediterranean Sea. At least some of the birds landed at the coast where they spent the day before taking off shortly after sunset. These birds passed the desert sites at the expected time of day assuming a ground speed of 18 m per second. However, the origin of the birds passing the desert sites early at night is unclear. They must either have spent the day in the desert north of the study sites or they had overflown the Egyptian coast in the afternoon without landing.
The landing of birds during the day at the desert sites was bimodal. This pattern of arrival is explained either by some birds having landed at the Egyptian coast in the early morning before continuing, or by deteriorating conditions later in the day during flight or when resting in the desert, that obliged them to seek shelter at the desert sites.
A correlation between the number of migrants observed during the night and the number of resting birds in the desert on the following day suggests that an unknown proportion of birds might regularly use an intermittent migratory strategy that includes rest periods by day when crossing the desert, whereas others might adapt a non-stop migratory strategy.     

Associations between anuran tadpoles and salinity in a landscape mosaic of wetlands impacted by secondary salinisation

1. The secondary salinisation of wetlands is a global problem that poses a great threat to most freshwater biodiversity, including amphibians. We examined tadpole diversity in relation to wetland conductivity (our proxy for salinity) in wetlands in south‐eastern Australia to better understand (i) how salinity and amphibian diversity interact and (ii) the threat posed by secondary salinisation. 2. Six tadpole species were trapped in 56 wetlands that reflected a typical salinity gradient for the study region. We developed Bayesian models to examine the relationships between conductivity and both the probability of species occupancy and expected number of species with the imperfect detection probability of species accounted for in the models. 3. The probability of occupancy for all species and expected species number was negatively associated with wetland conductivity. Our results predict that conductivity should not limit tadpole presence below about 3000 μS cm⁻¹ at 25 °C (approximately 6% seawater) in the region, but will largely exclude amphibian larvae beyond about 6000 μS cm⁻¹ at 25 °C (approximately 12% seawater). 4. We also detected subtle among‐species differences in salinity tolerance. The results reported here show that tadpoles in the study region are likely to be negatively affected by projected future increases in salinisation.     

Estimating fat and protein fuel from fat and muscle scores in passerines

Fat is the prime energy source for birds during prolonged exercise, but protein is also catabolized. Estimates of the amount of catabolizable fat and protein (termed fat and protein fuel) are therefore important for studying energetics of birds. As fat and protein fuel can only be measured by sacrificing individuals or by use of technically complex methods, scoring systems were invented to estimate fat and protein fuel of birds in the field. The visible subcutaneous fat deposits and the thickness of the flight muscles are each scored on an ordinal scale but these scales do not correspond linearly to fat and protein fuel within species, which is needed for analyses such as flight range estimates. We developed an anova ‐type model to estimate fat and protein fuel from fat scores (FS) and muscle scores (MS) along with total mass and a size measurement. Using data from 11 337 individuals of eight passerine species (Common Nightingale Luscinia megarhynchos, Eurasian Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus, Melodious Warbler Hippolais polyglotta, Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus, Orphean Warbler Sylvia hortensis, Garden Warbler Sylvia borin, Common Whitethroat Sylvia communis, Subalpine Warbler Sylvia cantillans) mist‐netted in Mauritania, West Africa, we tested for independence of FS and MS and for variation in the relationship between scores and associated mass in response to physiological state. FS, MS and third primary length (size) explained variation in body mass of all eight species analysed (R²: 0.56–0.77). The parameter estimates of the model showed that fat and protein fuel increased monotonically with increasing fat and muscle scores. In two species we found small differences in the estimates between physiological states (seasons). We evaluated our model by comparing the predicted body mass of birds with both FS and MS equal to 0 with the mean body mass of individuals mist‐netted with both scores equal to zero. The values were very close. The amount of fat extracted from dead Garden and Willow Warblers was within the range of predicted fat fuel derived from the model. We conclude that our model is a useful non‐invasive method to estimate simultaneously mean fat and protein fuel of small passerines and we provide recommendations on its use.     

Wetting of the upper needle surface of Abies grandis: influence of pH, wax chemistry and epiphyllic microflora on contact angles

Wetting of the upper needle surface of Abies grandis Lindl. by aqueous solutions of different pH values was investigated. With increasing needle age, contact angles decreased significantly from about 75° on current-year needles to values lower than 30° on 4-year-old needles. On older needles, contact angles were significantly lower, by more than 10°, when aqueous solutions of pH9-0 were used compared with those of pH3-0. On the surfaces of older needles, contact angle titrations were carried out, contact angles being measured with aqueous solutions covering a pH range from 3.0 to 11.0. Measured titration curves showed clear inflection points around pH 7.0, indicating the existence of ionizable carboxylie groups in the interface between needle surface and atmosphere. The evidence seems convincing that the pronounced pH dependence of wetting is mainly due to the presence and/or activity of epiphyllic micro-organisms, whereas the cuticular wax composition of Abies grandis needles does not appear to contribute significantly to this phenomenon. Thus, the results presented here allow the general conclusion that changes of contact angles measured on leaf surfaces may not always be due to changes in the leaf surface chemistry and/or the fine structure of leaf surface waxes, but may also be due to increased amounts of epiphyllic micro-organisms significantly altering the leaf surface wetting properties.     

Sex‐specific foraging behaviour in tropical boobies: does size matter?

Sex differences in the foraging behaviour of adults have been observed in a number of sexually size-dimorphic birds, and the usual inference has been that these sex-specific differences are driven primarily by differences in body size. An alternative explanation is that foraging differences result from sex differences unrelated to size, such as sex-specific nutritional requirements. To examine these alternative hypotheses, the foraging behaviour of parents was compared between two sympatric and congeneric species of seabird, the Brown Booby Sula leucogaster , which is highly sexually size-dimorphic (females 38% larger) and the Red-footed Booby S. sula , in which sex differences in body size are less marked (females 15% larger). Using temperature and depth loggers, we found that there were highly significant differences in the foraging trip durations and diving behaviour of male and female Brown Boobies. These sex differences were less marked in Red-footed Boobies. Thus, our interspecies comparison revealed that the magnitude of the difference between the sexes matched the sexual size dimorphism of the species, providing support for the size hypothesis.