The Tongass National Forest encompasses a large expanse of temperate rainforest in southeastern Alaska and contains 12 designated Research Natural Areas (RNAs). Existing in as near a natural condition as possible, RNAs receive minimal commercial and recreational use. Because few bird studies have been conducted on RNAs, we used point counts and area searches to determine the occurrence and abundance of breeding landbirds present in vegetation communities of RNAs. Of 49 species of small landbirds detected during area searches, the most widely distributed birds among RNAs were rufous hummingbird (Selasphorus rufa), chestnut-backed chickadee (Poecile rufescens), winter wren (Troglodytes troglodytes), golden-crowned kinglet (Regulus satrapa), Swainson's thrush (Catharus ustulatus), hermit thrush (C. guttatus), varied thrush (Ixoreus naevius), and Townsend's warbler (Dendroica townsendi). The 8 most abundant species recorded on 187 point counts (>0.5 birds/point) were Pacific-slope flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis), hermit thrush, varied thrush, winter wren, golden-crowned kinglet, Townsend's warbler, and chestnut-backed chickadee. Several species had significant differences in abundance between low-elevation hemlock-spruce forest and their abundance in either high-elevation fir-spruce forest or mixed conifer-shore pine muskeg. Because RNAs provide forests that are not disturbed by human activities, these sites could provide a standard to evaluate changes in bird abundance and richness that may occur on developed land in southeastern Alaska.

We investigated whether trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator) gain energy from forage in excess of estimated daily demands while present in a spring migration stopover area west of Calgary, Alberta. We estimated energy budgets from activity time budgets of 443 individual focal-animal observations. We conducted exclosure experiments in ponds used by trumpeter swans to estimate consumption of Potamogeton pectinatus tubers and rhizomes, and we determined metabolizable energy of forage to assess energy intake. Our conservative estimate of forage removal indicated that energy demands were similar to gains within migration stopover areas. Therefore, trumpeter swans likely have a positive energy balance that is available for further migration and reproduction. We suggest that spring migration stopover areas could play a critical role in the further conservation of this species.

The introduction of rat species (Rattus spp.) is a conservation concern for island avifauna throughout the world. I employed 3 commonly used monitoring techniques for rats: live-trapping, snap-trapping, and apples as indicator baits at several sites on Langara Island, British Columbia, with and without the presence of breeding seabirds. Capture rates of Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) in snap traps in an ancient murrelet (Synthliboramphus antiquus) colony while murrelets were actively breeding ranged between 0.0 and 0.7 captures per 100 trap-nights (C/100 TN), while concurrent capture rates in other regions of the island outside of the ancient murrelet colony ranged from 2.2 to 17.1 C/100 TN. Live traps in the ancient murrelet colony also had low capture rates (0 to 0.5 C/100 TN) while murrelets were present in the colony. Once murrelets departed following their breeding, capture rates in snap traps in the ancient murrelet colony rose to 9.9 to 14.0 C/100TN, rates comparable to other areas of the island without breeding seabirds. Apples were a useful monitoring tool and detected the presence of rats in seabird-nesting areas where no rats were trapped with snap or live traps. I conclude that the presence of breeding seabirds undermines the utility of traps as monitoring tools and that research and management efforts dependent on the capture of rats would best be carried out before or after the breeding season of these seabirds.

Phylogeography of northern populations of the Pacific treefrog, Pseudacris regilla, was investigated using mitochondrial cytochrome b sequence data (725 bp). Thirty-six haplo-types were detected among 59 samples collected from 20 populations. Two divergent coastal and inland clades were supported by several phylogenetic analyses including maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods. Sequence differences among these clades ranged from 5.0 to 6.5%, suggesting they diverged during the Pliocene (approximately 3 MYA), coinciding with High Cascade orogeny and subsequent xerification of the Columbia Basin. Further, haplotype divergence within each clade was lower (0 to 1.8%), possibly as a consequence of population reduction during the Pleistocene. The overall pattern of divergence was not detected by previous morphological and protein analysis and is concordant with many other Northwest taxa. These results do not support previous intraspecific classification schemes, indicating the need for further examination of the taxonomic status of the coastal and inland clades.