The Orientation of Passerine Nocturnal Migrants Following Offshore Drift

The Auk ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth P. Able
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Subcutaneous Fat ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Nocturnal Activity ◽  
Wind Drift ◽  
Positive Phototaxis ◽  
Nocturnal Migration ◽  
Block Island

Abstract Nocturnal autumn passerine migrants are frequently drifted by wind or carried by downwind flight from New England to offshore islands. Most individuals in these flights are immatures. Many recover the mainland via reoriented northward flights. During fall 1972, I made field observations and performed orientation cage tests on nocturnal migrants on Block Island, Rhode Island. Migrants reached the island during four southward movements in following winds. Migration was very light or absent on most other nights. Reoriented diurnal flights left from the island immediately after the arrival of a large nocturnal migration. Northward movements occurred on two nights following daytime reoriented flights. These nocturnal movements are tentatively interpreted as constituting reoriented flights. About 27% of the 79 individuals tested in orientation cages showed significantly directional nocturnal activity. About two-thirds of these oriented basically northwestward, corresponding to the reoriented flight of free-flying birds. These and similar reorientations of immature birds can be explained by a simple compass reorientation in response to wind drift over the ocean without invoking complicated navigation mechanisms. The remaining individuals oriented toward the southeast. Eleven birds exhibited a significant eastward orientation during the first few hours after dawn; this is interpreted as a positive phototaxis. Three of four Blackpoll Warblers oriented southward. No correlation existed between the quantity of Zugunruhe and the amount of subcutaneous fat, but fatter birds were significantly more likely to show oriented nocturnal activity.

Maritime Settlement and Subsistence along the Southern New England Coast: Evidence from Block Island, Rhode Island

1998 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Tveskov
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Coastal Zone ◽  
Woodland Period ◽  
Regional Studies ◽  
Middle Woodland ◽  
Middle Woodland Period ◽  
Southern New England ◽  
Intensive Use ◽  
Block Island

The nature of prehistoric settlement and subsistence practices in coastal New England has been intensively discussed by archaeologists over the last twenty years. Archaeologists have attempted to determine when and how maize horticulture was adopted in the coastal zone and how maritime resources fit into the aboriginal diet throughout the Woodland period. Analyses of an Early to Middle Woodland period shell midden on Block Island, Rhode Island, is consistent with a number of other regional studies that suggest that the use of maritime resources was relatively early and intensive. On Block Island, intensive use of a wide variety of flora and fauna was taking place on a year-round basis as early as 3000 years ago, some 1000 years earlier than on the adjacent mainland coast.

Conducting “Siteless Survey”: Results from Coastal New England

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordan E. Kerber
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Land Use Patterns ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Statistical Validity ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
Survey Strategy

Selecting an effective archaeological survey takes careful consideration given the interaction of several variables, such as the survey's goals, nature of the data base, and budget constraints. This article provides justification for a “siteless survey” using evidence from a project on Potowomut Neck in Rhode Island whose objective was not to locate sites but to examine the distribution and density of prehistoric remains to test an hypothesis related to land use patterns. The survey strategy, random walk, was chosen because it possessed the advantages of probabilistic testing, as well as the ease of locating sample units. The results were within the limits of statistical validity and were found unable to reject the hypothesis. “Siteless survey” may be successfully applied in similar contexts where the distribution and density of materials, as opposed to ambiguously defined sites, are sought as evidence of land use patterns, in particular, and human adaptation, in general.

Emancipation and Free African Americans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Archer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
African Descent ◽  
American Population ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Free African Americans

Except in parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut, slavery was a peripheral institution, and throughout New England during and after the Revolution there was widespread support to emancipate slaves. Some of the states enacted emancipation laws that theoretically allowed slavery to continue almost indefinitely, and slavery remained on the books as late as 1857 in New Hampshire. Although the laws gradually abolished slavery and although the pace was painfully slow for those still enslaved, the predominant dynamic for New England society was the sudden emergence of a substantial, free African American population. What developed was an even more virulent racism and a Jim Crow environment. The last part of the chapter is an analysis of where African Americans lived as of 1830 and the connection between racism and concentrations of people of African descent.

The Crompton Closing: Imports and the Decline of America's Oldest Textile Company

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 231-260
Author(s):  
TIMOTHY J. MINCHIN
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Apparel Industry ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Continuous Operation ◽  
Manufacturing Industries ◽  
The South ◽  
Textile And Apparel ◽  
Textile And Apparel Industry

This article explores the demise of the Crompton Company, which filed for bankruptcy in October 1984, causing 2,450 workers in five states to lose their jobs. Crompton was founded in 1807 in Providence, Rhode Island and when it went out of business it was the oldest textile firm in the country, having been in continuous operation for 178 years. Despite its history, scholars have overlooked Crompton, partly because most work on deindustrialization has concentrated on heavy manufacturing industries, especially steel and automobiles. I argue that Crompton's demise throws much light on the broader decline of the American textile and apparel industry, which has lost over two million jobs since the mid-1970s, and shows that textiles deserve a more central place in the literature. Using company papers, this study shows that imports played the central role in causing Crompton's decline, although there were also other problems, including the strong dollar, declining exports, and a reluctance to diversify, which contributed to it. The paper also explores broader trends, including the earlier flight of the industry from New England to the South and the industry's unsuccessful campaign to pass import-restriction legislation, a fight in which Crompton's managers were very involved.

First Hemispheric Report of Invasive Tick Species Haemaphysalis Punctata Canestrini Et Fanzago, 1878, First State Report of Haemaphysalis Longicornis Neumann, and Range Expansion of Native Tick Species in Rhode Island, USA

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle M Tufts ◽  
Maria A Diuk-Wasser
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Range Expansion ◽  
Tick Species ◽  
The United States ◽  
Western Hemisphere ◽  
Avian Host ◽  
Haemaphysalis Longicornis ◽  
New Locations ◽  
Block Island

Abstract Invasive arthropod vectors and the range expansions of native vectors can lead to public and veterinary health concerns, as these vectors may introduce novel pathogens or spread endemic pathogens to new locations. Recent tick invasions and range expansion in the United States has been attributed to climate and land use change, an increase in global travel, and importations of exotic animals. A 10 year surveillance study was conducted on Block Island, Rhode Island from 2010–2020 including sampling ticks from small mammal and avian hosts. We report the discovery and establishment of the red sheep tick for the first time in the western hemisphere and in the United States. This invasive species was first collected in 2010 on Block Island, was collected continuously throughout the study, and was collected from an avian host. We document the first report of the invasive Asian longhorned tick in the state of Rhode Island, first observed at our sites in 2018. Finally, we present data on the range expansion and establishment of two native tick species, the lone star tick and the rabbit tick on Block Island. This study emphasized the importance of long-term surveillance to detect changes in tick host communities, including invasive and expanding native vectors of potential significance to humans and wildlife.

scholarly journals American lobster nurseries of southern New England receding in the face of climate change

2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. i69-i78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Wahle ◽  
Lanny Dellinger ◽  
Scott Olszewski ◽  
Phoebe Jekielek
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Size Composition ◽  
Homarus Americanus ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Shore Crab ◽  
American Lobster ◽  
Southern New England ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Outer Coast

Abstract Historically, southern New England has supported one of the most productive American lobster (Homarus americanus) fisheries of the northeast United States. Recently, the region has seen dramatic declines in lobster populations coincident with a trend of increasingly stressful summer warmth and shell disease. We report significant declines in the abundance, distribution, and size composition of juvenile lobsters that have accompanied the warming trend in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, since the first comprehensive survey of lobster nurseries conducted there in 1990. We used diver-based visual surveys and suction sampling in 1990, 2011, and 2012, supplemented by post-larval collectors in 2011 and 2012. In 1990, lobster nurseries extended from the outer coast into the mid-sections of the bay, but by 2011 and 2012 they were largely restricted to the outer coast and deeper water at the mouth of the bay. Among five new study sites selected by the lobster fishing industry for the 2011 and 2012 surveys, the deepest site on the outer coast (15–17 m depth) harboured some of the highest lobster densities in the survey. Separate fixed site hydrographic monitoring at 13 locations in the bay by the Rhode Island Division of Fish and Wildlife recorded an approximately 2.0°C increase in summer surface temperatures over the period, with 2012 being the warmest on record. Additional monitoring of bottom temperatures, dissolved oxygen and pH at our sampling sites in 2011 and 2012 indicated conditions falling below physiological optima for lobsters during summer. The invasion of the Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus, since the 1990s may also be contributing to declines of juvenile lobster shallow zones (<5 m) in this region. Because lobster populations appear increasingly restricted to deeper and outer coastal waters of southern New England, further monitoring of settlement and nursery habitat in deep water is warranted.

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