Pennsylvania Game News - October 2012 - 55

younger males have a harder time attracting females than older ones. White-crowns have also been used in numerous studies of how birds learn songs. Recently, researchers discovered that young white-crowns don’t need to hear a song in its entirety to learn it correctly. Gary J. Rose of the University of Utah and his colleagues played the white-crown song to young white-crowns in two-part phases — BA and DC instead of AB and CD for example — and the youngsters were able to piece together the typical white-crown song in reverse. But without the pairing, the young birds sang a jumble. This early musical exposure, Rose says, influences combination-sensitive detectors in their brains, allowing them to piece together song elements of nearly normal length with melodies dependent on what paired snippets they heard. When researchers aren’t studying them, young white-crowns listen to their fathers and learn perfect Oh gee — it was the whiz-whiskey or more wet wetter chee zee white-crowned sparrow song. To Clement, “sitting in my tent or in some miner’s shack

in the iron ore belt of interior Labrador in 1957, the song of the white-crown reminded me of a diminutive eastern meadowlark.” Inclement weather, particularly snow storms on their nesting grounds, causes the most mortality in white-crowns, but shrikes, snowy and short-eared owls, sharpshinned hawks and American kestrels prey on them. The eastern white-crowned sparrow has continued to extend its winter range both eastward and northward since 1950. Clement attributes it to “climatic amelioration,” the planting of multiflora rose, which provides great cover in the open areas they favor, and the huge increase in bird feeding. They also relish the seeds of plants we scorn — pigweeds, foxtail-grasses, panic grasses, smartweeds, chickweeds, docks and ragweeds. Once they weathered last October’s snowstorm, however, the living must have been easy for those that chose to spend the mildest winter in living memory here in Pennsylvania. 

Trapper’s Tips…

By Dan Lynch

Safety catches for large body gripping traps:
Anyone planning to use the large #330 size body gripping traps should make the investment of five or six dollars and purchase a body gripper safety catch tool. This small tool is about seven inches long and can easily be carried in a pocket or trapping basket when out on the trapline. After setting your body gripper and before letting go of the jaws with one of your hands you should place this setting tool over the two jaws. You can then place the two spring safety catches over your compressed springs. These spring safety catches are a good back-up but I would not recommend that you use them as a primary safety device. If the trap is accidentally fired they could possibly slip off or be thrown free of the springs. Removing the safety catch tool from the body gripper jaws should be the last step in making your set for a furbearer such as a beaver. Using big body grippers is fun and making sure you use a safety catch device will ensure you continue to have fun out on the trapline.

OCTOBER 2012

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/920435/trapper's_tips_pdf

Pennsylvania Game News - October 2012

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