Ecology of Fall Migrating Sora in Missouri

1. Ecology of Fall Migrating Sora in Missouri Auriel M.V. Fournier1, David G. Krementz2, Doreen C. Mengel3, Andy H. Raedeke3 1Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas (amvander@uark.edu) 2U.S. Geological Survey, Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas 3Missouri Department of Conservation, Resource Science Division, Columbia, Missouri Introduction Results • Discussion • Due to the drought conditions in 2012 water was limited on the landscape and almost exclusively restricted to moist soil units. This drought may have driven the selections of these Sora more than the habitat or disturbance. The water in 2012 was limited to moist soil units by managers to prepare those units for waterfowl migration. • We anticipate that in a more normal precipitation year there may be different patterns of habitat use. • Future Work • We are currently in our 2nd field season and will have a 3rd in 2014. • This fall we are capturing rails to collect feathers for stable isotope analysis to determine the origin of rails using these sites. • We are also deploying VHF radios this fall to determine detection probability. • Acknowledgements • We would like to thank the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit for funding and assisting with this study. • We would like to thank C. Crisler, D. Welchert, R. Bell, C. Freeman, S. Whitson, M. Flaspohler, R. Kelly, M. Hanan, J. Wilson, G. Calvert, B. Pendley, K. Brunke, M. Bowyer and K. Cordell for their help in planning this project. • Special thanks to M. Boone, L. Brinkman, D. Datlof, J. Lehman, and N. Seeger for their diligent and enthusiastic work in the field. • Little is known about the timing or habitat use of Sora during their fall migration. • Within the Mississippi Flyway a portion of remaining wetlands are located on intensively managed public areas. Wetland management techniques include soil disturbance and water level manipulation to promote desired plant communities and structures. • All of our study sites experienced exceptional or extreme drought conditions in the summer/fall 2012. • Phenology • We detected over 1,800 Sora in the fall of 2012. • The number of Sora increased throughout the season. • Habitat • In 2012, we observed a strong region and round effect across all surveys and were not able to create any state wide models. • Because of this effect we produced a set of individual region models using R package ‘unmarked’ for both habitat type and disturbance regime. • Moist soil units had the highest densities of Soras when compared to other habitat types. • Impoundments with disturbance through discing had the highest densities of Sora. Number of Sora Observed Increased Throughout the Season AR Coop Unit/Justin Lehman Methods Moist Soil Habitats Have Higher Sora Density than Perennial Emergent or Upland • We conducted nocturnal spotlight surveys from ATVs on 12 publically-managed wetland complexes across the state of Missouri. • A series of wetland impoundments at each complex were surveyed for two hours each night. • Our season was divided into three survey rounds. Each series of impoundments was visited twice per round. Location ofstudy areas across the state of Missouri, USA in four regions: NW, NC, NE & SE. NWR = National Wildlife Refuge CA = Conservation Area Round 1: Aug 15-30, Round 2 : Sept 2-19, Round 3: Sept 21-Oct 7 PE: Perennial Emergent, UP: Upland, MS: Moist Soil Disced Habitats Have Higher Sora Density than Mowed or Undisturbed Habitats Round 1: Aug 15-30, Round 2 : Sept 2-19, Round 3: Sept 21-Oct 7