Acorn Dispersal by California Scrub-Jays in Urban Sacramento, California

Current desires of conspecific observers affect cache-protection strategies in California scrub-jays and Eurasian jays

Many corvid species accurately remember the locations where they have seen others cache food, allowing them to pilfer these caches efficiently once the cachers have left the scene [1]. To protect their caches, corvids employ a suite of different cache-protection strategies that limit the observers' visual or acoustic access to the cache site [2,3]. In cases where an observer's sensory access ca...

California Storms as Viewed by Sacramento Radar

The WSR-57 radar a t Sacramento provides an opportunity to observe mountain effects on precipitation and on radar echo patterns. Radar patterns representing a wide range of weather situations are described and interpreted in light of concurrent gage precipitation measurements. The frequent underestimation by radar of rainfall on windward slopes is attributed to the small drop size and low forma...

Difficulties when using video playback to investigate social cognition in California scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica)

Previous research has suggested that videos can be used to experimentally manipulate social stimuli. In the present study, we used the California scrub-jays' cache protection strategies to assess whether video playback can be used to simulate conspecifics in a social context. In both the lab and the field, scrub-jays are known to exhibit a range of behaviours to protect their caches from potent...

ACORN-STORING BY THE CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER By WILLIAM E. RITTER

State-of California Memorandum to Sacramento Environmental

Potential Application to Studies of Pesticide Transport to California Ground Water. The purpose of this memo is to briefly summarize (i) methods for distinguishing different source contributions to shallow ground water using stable isotope markers, and (ii) methods for age-dating shallow ground waters using various environmental tracers. I. INTRODUCTION The Pesticide Contamination Prevention Ac...