The canopy cover has decreased tremendously with a corresponding increase in shrub undergrowth. Other species, more typical of thick shrub early successional habitats colonized the changed habitat. Response of avian communities to disturbance by an exotic insect in spruce-fir forests of the southern Appalachians. During the summer of 1997, Leif Jacobson, a student from Collegiate High School, and I conducted a field experiment on nest predation. One reason given for the decline of neotropical migrants is increased nest predation due to the fragmentation of eastern deciduous forests.
Fragmentation increases the amount of edge and many nest predators prefer edges.
The eggs used in these studies have usually been those from the commercially raised Japanese Quail. Haskell went on to suggest the use of appropriately sized clay eggs in future experiments. We decided to directly compare clay eggs v. Japanese Quail eggs in a nest predation experiment. Our results have been submitted for publication.