James C. Lewis

Mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) behavior, habitat use, and food habits were studied in southwestern Oklahoma during faIl-winter. Birds present during the September-October hunting season were summer residents and migrants. They formed large feeding flocks containing up to 1,000 birds, flew 3-12 km from night roosts to feeding sites, and fed in morning and late afternoon. These doves fed in wheatfields when waste grain was available; otherwise, they fed on haygrazer (sorghum x sudan grass), sunflower (Hetianthus sp.), and weed seeds. Doves day-roosted in ravines or uplands near the stock...

Fourteen adult whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus) does were captured (10 in 1976 and 4 in 1977) and fitted with radio transmitters. Eight of the 14 survived through at least I parturition period with properly functioning collars. Eleven fawns of the radiocollared does and 37 other fawns were captured soon after birth, radio-collared, released and monitored regularly. Four other does marked with ear streamers supplemented data from radio-collared deer. Some does shifted or reduced use of established home ranges just before parturition and separated themselves from conspecifics, usually...

The red·cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) presumably was fairly com· mon historically in the pinelands of southeastern Oklahoma. The species requires oldgrowth timber for nests and roosts, and in the past century their populations have declined due to logging operations and clearing of forestland. Remnant populations of red· cockadeds were located in the McCurtain County Wilderness Area, and on Weyerhaeuser Company lands in Pushmataha County and may still occur in Beavers Bend State Park, McCurtain County. Between 145 and 165 birds occupy 48 to 53 colonies, with 84 to 90% of the...

Aerial and gronnd censuses of bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) wintering in Oklahoma indicate a minimum population in midwinter of almost 600 eagles. The northern bald eagle (H. l. alascanus) is the primary subspecies found in Oklahoma. Eagles generally begin arriving in October, their populations peak in January, and most have departed by mid March. The largest concentrations ofeagIes are located along the SaIt Fork River near Salt Plains National Wildlife Rehlge (NWR), at Grand Lake, in Osage and Texas Counties, at the Wichita Mountains NWR and Sequoyah NWR, and at Keystone,...

Five deer census methods are compared on the Central Peninsula deer herd in Eastern Tennessee. This insular herd is intensively managed and has several characteristics which make it worthy of population analysis. All census methods indicated similar population trends and differed only in magnitude. The Lincoln Index and Percent Kill Methods provided the most reliable estimates. The latter is the easiest to calculate. The Sex-age Kill Method will apparently give good herd estimates, if the percent of non-hunting losses can be approximated and allowance made for other problems. It shows...

Handling techniques for x-raying trapped doe deer are described. Myothesia was used as an anaesthetic at the rate of 1.5 cc. per 5 pounds body weight. A portable x-ray machine with maximum output of 30 MA and 80 KV was used to x-ray eight dead and forty-eight live deer. Pictures were made of yearling deer (12-14 cm. width) at 0.5 second exposure time, 36-inch focal-film distance, 25 milliamps and 65 kilovolts. Machine settings were the same for older deer, except kilovoltage, which increased 2 kilovolts per cm. of deer width. Radiographs indicated that 52 deer contained an average of 0.83...