Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2000 09:00:07 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Tyler Bell Subject: Fwd: [BIRDCHAT] RFI; grass types in Henslow's Sparrow fields Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable MDOspreyers: These messages were posted to BirdChat but should be of interest to those = of you in pursuit of Henlsow's Sparrow in western MD. Tyler Bell mailto:bell@acnatsci.org California, MD http://list.audubon.org/archives/md-smas-general.html http://list.audubon.org/archives/nd-birds.html >>> Dave Rintoul 06/14/00 02:39PM >>> Habitat preferences for Henslow's Sparrows, at least here on the edge of the Great Plains, include an almost absolute requirement for standing dead grass (species of grass probably not important). On the nearby Konza Prairie Biological Station, J.L Zimmerman et al showed that Henslow's Sparrows were not found on watersheds that had been burned recently (and thus had no dead grass), but were commonly found nesting on watersheds that were last burned 1-3 years earlier, with substantial amounts of dead grsss stems. This research is summarized most eloquently in the chapter "In Praise of Standing Dead", in John's monograph "The Birds of Konza." Probably part of the reason that they prefer unburned prairies is because they basically like to sneak around in the "understory" of the grasslands, rather than fly around, as anyone who has tried to get a good look at these birds can surely recall. In fact, the Henslow's Sparrow photograph in the aforementioned book is of a bird which basically walked up to within three feet of me before I noticed it. Then it flushed off and sang from a nearby dogwood thicket. I would have much preferred a photo of a bird three feet away, but it didn't give me that opportunity again :-) Cheers, Dave Rintoul, Ph.D. mailto:drintoul@ksu.edu=20= Biology Division - KSU ICBM: 39.18N, 96.34W Manhattan KS 66506-4901 VOX: 785-532-6663 http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~drintoul/ FAX: 785-532-6653 >>> Keith Peters 06/14/00 04:53PM >>> I must say that I am in complete agreement with Dave Rintoul's observation that Henslow's Sparrows tend toward dead grass areas. In my experience--las= t Saturday, for example--I can look at a field in which Henslow's are = calling and, to see the birds, I must concentrate on the area(s) with dead grass. = It is there that the males emerge to weed-top and vocalize. No dead grass=3Dno= birds. In the past, I have spent some time scratching my head while = looking at fields where I had seen this species before but none were about then. One reason is, I have come to know, that the fields had been cut in the off = season and no dead grass was present anymore. Gary Felton raises a question I can't even speculate on. I will say that = the type of grass that Henslow's prefers hasn't seemed to matter in my = experience; as long as it was 12-18"/31-46 cm high and full of dead grass areas, they = will possibly nest. They don't seem to like anything much higher than 18"/46 = cm. Keith Peters Huntington, WV kview826@netscape.net=20 ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================