Ecology of Fall Migrating Sora in Missouri Auriel M.V. Fournier 1, David G. Krementz 2, Doreen C. Mengel 3, Andy H. Raedeke 3 1 Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas 2 U.S. Geological Survey, Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas 3 Missouri Department of Conservation, Resource Science Division, Columbia, Missouri Little is known about the timing or habitat use of Sora during their fall migration. Within the Mississippi Flyway a portion of remaining wetlands are located on intensively managed public areas. Wetland management techniques include soil disturbance and water level manipulation to promote desired plant communities and structures. Location of study areas across the state of Missouri, USA in four regions: NW, NC, NE & SE. NWR = National Wildlife Refuge CA = Conservation Area Introduction AR Coop Unit/Justin Lehman We conducted nocturnal spotlight surveys from ATVs on 12 publically-managed wetland complexes across the state of Missouri. A series of wetland impoundments at each complex were surveyed for two hours each night. Our season was divided into three survey rounds. Each series of impoundments was visited twice per round. Methods Round 1: Aug 15-30, Round 2 : Sept 2-19, Round 3: Sept 21-Oct 7 PE: Perennial Emergent, UP: Upland, MS: Moist Soil Discussion Due to the drought conditions in 2012 water was limited on the landscape and almost exclusively restricted to moist soil units. This drought may have driven the selections of these Sora more than the habitat or disturbance. The water in 2012 was limited to moist soil units by managers to prepare those units for waterfowl migration. We anticipate that in a more normal precipitation year there may be different patterns of habitat use. Future Work We are currently in our 2 nd field season and will have a 3 rd in This fall we are capturing rails to collect feathers for stable isotope analysis to determine the origin of rails using these sites. We are also deploying VHF radios this fall to determine detection probability. Acknowledgements We would like to thank the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Missouri Department of Conservation and the U.S. Geological Survey Arkansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit for funding and assisting with this study. We would like to thank C. Crisler, D. Welchert, R. Bell, C. Freeman, S. Whitson, M. Flaspohler, R. Kelly, M. Hanan, J. Wilson, G. Calvert, B. Pendley, K. Brunke, M. Bowyer and K. Cordell for their help in planning this project. Special thanks to M. Boone, L. Brinkman, D. Datlof, J. Lehman, and N. Seeger for their diligent and enthusiastic work in the field. All of our study sites experienced exceptional or extreme drought conditions in the summer/fall Phenology We detected over 1,800 Sora in the fall of The number of Sora increased throughout the season. Habitat In 2012, we observed a strong region and round effect across all surveys and were not able to create any state wide models. Because of this effect we produced a set of individual region models using R package ‘unmarked’ for both habitat type and disturbance regime. Moist soil units had the highest densities of Soras when compared to other habitat types. Impoundments with disturbance through discing had the highest densities of Sora. Round 1: Aug 15-30, Round 2 : Sept 2-19, Round 3: Sept 21-Oct 7 Moist Soil Habitats Have Higher Sora Density than Perennial Emergent or Upland Disced Habitats Have Higher Sora Density than Mowed or Undisturbed Habitats Number of Sora Observed Increased Throughout the Season Results