Vol. 28 No. 2 (1997)

The most recent inventory of all modern avian taxa known from Alaska for many years was that of Gabrielson and Lincoln (1959), who discussed 311 species and an additional 102 subspecies. Their data and many of their assessments were also reflected in the fifth edition of the AOU Check-list of North American Birds (1957), produced by a committee of which E. C. Lincoln was a member.

The islands in the Gulf of California may be the most ecologically intact nonpolar archipelago in the world. As such, they are of considerable importance to the scientific study of biogeography, community ecology, evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, and other fields that depend on intact ecosystems.

The Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis) has been studied extensively for the past two decades (Gutierrez et al. 1995). Two of the key life-history parameters estimated from this research have been clutch size and brood size. In Spotted Owls, broods of one and two are common, while broods of three are rare, and no broods of four have been reported since the turn of the century (Gutierrez et al. 1995).

Although the Western Wood-Pewee (Contopus sordidulus) has a large western North American breeding distribution, little is known about its reproductive biology (Bent 1942; Murphy 1983; Curson 1996). Here, we provide information on the nest-site characteristics and nesting success of the Western Wood-Pewee in Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests in the foothills of Colorado.

The egg collection at the Slater Museum of Natural History, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington, contains a set (PSM 13196) of three eggs of the Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), collected on 7 May 1937 at an elevation of 5,000 feet in the Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego County, California, by E. E. Sechrist. These specimens document a significant southerly extension of the known historical breeding range of this species along the Pacific Coast.

On 10 June 1996, I discovered a Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus) nest on a salt pan at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Fremont, California.