Alex Garvie. Aeschylus' Supplices. Play and Trilogy, Bristol Phoenix Press, UK, 2006, i-xxiv + 279 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Alex Garvie. Aeschylus' Supplices. Play and Trilogy, Bristol Phoenix Press, UK, 2006, i-xxiv + 279 pp.

Fil: Fernández Deagustini, María del Pilar. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Bird observations in the Weddell Sea

Pelagic distribution of birds at the Weddell Sea. The essay contains the notes taken of the observation of birds at the Weddell Sea (24 species). The observations were made on two expeditions in the southern summer of 1955/56 and 1959/60 on board the Argentine icebreaker "General San Martin". After an introduction dealing with the Weddell Sea and the methods of research the species are represented together with the territory of observation and supplementary annotations. Two tables give a survey of the birds seen on each day of the expedition and in the territories they sailed through.

Detection histories for eight species of Amazona parrots in Venezuela during the NeoMaps bird surveys in 2010

Documenting changes in distribution is necessary for understanding species' response to environmental changes, but data on species distributions are heterogeneous in accuracy and resolution. Combining different data sources and methodological approaches can fill gaps in knowledge about the dynamic processes driving changes in species-rich, but data-poor regions. We combined recent bird survey data from the Neotropical Biodiversity Mapping Initiative (NeoMaps) with historical distribution records to estimate potential changes in the distribution of eight species of Amazon parrots in Venezuela. Using environmental covariates and presence-only data from museum collections and the literature, we first used maximum likelihood to fit a species distribution model (SDM) estimating a historical maximum probability of occurrence for each species. We then used recent, NeoMaps survey data to build single-season occupancy models (OM) with the same environmental covariates, as well as with time- and effort-dependent detectability, resulting in estimates of the current probability of occurrence. We finally calculated the disagreement between predictions as a matrix of probability of change in the state of occurrence. Our results suggested negative changes for the only restricted, threatened species, Amazona barbadensis, which has been independently confirmed with field studies. Two of the three remaining widespread species that were detected, Amazona amazonica, Amazona ochrocephala, also had a high probability of negative changes in northern Venezuela, but results were not conclusive for Amazona farinosa. The four remaining species were undetected in recent field surveys; three of these were most probably absent from the survey locations (Amazona autumnalis, Amazona mercenaria and Amazona festiva), while a fourth (Amazona dufresniana) requires more intensive targeted sampling to estimate its current status. Our approach is unique in taking full advantage of available, but limited data, and in detecting a high probability of change even for rare and patchily-distributed species. However, it is presently limited to species meeting the strong assumptions required for maximum-likelihood estimation with presence-only data, including very high detectability and representative sampling of its historical distribution.

Bird count in Mastbos forest (Breda, Netherlands) in the years 1950 to 1981

Notes from Henrik de Nie: The project started as a phenological study in cooperation with the (Dutch) meteorological institute (KNMI) to register the time of arrival of Fitis and Tjiftaf. During 1951 to 1969 he went every day to the wood (except 1966, in this year his wife died). Thereafter he went no more daily, but because he knew the wood very well and he was free to choice the day on which he did a survey, therefore he choose days with relatively good weather. He did not observe very common bird species, maybe because they are dependent on nest boxes and he did not want to be dependent on the management of the nest box-people (in fact I forgot precisely his arguments, and now I cannot ask him this): Common Starling; Eurasian Tree Sparrow (not common); Great Tit; Eurasian Blue Tit Pieter mentioned 14 species that scored many zero values or only one observation: Stock Dove; Common Cuckoo; Lesser Spotted Woodpecker; Eurasian Golden Oriole; Eurasian Nuthatch; Short-toed Treecreeper; Common Nightingale; Marsh Warbler; Lesser Whitethroat; Goldcrest; Common Firecrest (after 1970 he had difficulties in hearing these two species); Spotted Flycatcher; Eurasian Bullfinch; Black Woodpecker He also mentioned species that he found much fewer as: European Greenfinch; European Pied Flycatcher; Long-eared Owl; Red Crossbill; Sedge Warbler; Icterine Warbler; Eurasian Woodcock; Eurasian Siskin; European Green Woodpecker; Great Spotted Woodpecker; Eurasian Hobby; Western Barn Owl; Woodlark; Common Wood Pigeon; Little Owl; European Crested Tit; Hawfinch. But for these species I think that observations are strongly dependent on the number of visits to the wood. Also here, many zeros and few 1 x during the whole series of visits.