Additional winter trapping is occurring right now. We have followed them to determine daily movements, nest success, habitat use, and rates and causes of mortality. The others were destroyed by predators. The hen that successfully hatched her brood lost it after only two weeks. One season of experience makes expanded success much more likely.
Additional optimism results from anecdotal observations from other field observers.
Our work is not too late, as these reports indicate that flocks at several of the feeding fields throughout the state yet number in the 20's and 30's. We are still hopeful that this declining trend might somehow reverse itself. We are especially grateful to all of the business people, outdoor sporting people, corporations and private foundations that have supported this work. We also thank the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation for financial support and for cooperation in this study. The spring of 1997 marked the beginning of a five-year effort by Oklahoma birders to document the distribution of Oklahoma' s nesting birds.