Movements by Birds and Small Mammals Between a Wood and Adjoining Farmland Habitats

Abstract

(1) White-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and chipmunks (Tamias striatus) moved between a beech-maple wood and connecting fencerows four times as often as they moved between traplines within the wood. They seldom moved between the wood and adjacent perennial grass fields or across the fields. (2) Birds seldom flew directly across open fields between woods. More species of birds moved more frequently between the wood and fencerows than between any other habitats. Wood-nesting birds moved more frequently from well-vegetated fencerows into fields to forage than from an equal length of wood border. Poorly developed fencerow vegetation restricted foraging by wood-nesters into fields. None of tree species diversity, line intercept measures, dendrograms, or foliage height diversity satisfactorily distinguished among the vegetation structure of different fencerows. (3) The results indicate that fencerows connect the wood to the surrounding agricultural mosaic and concentrate the activity of small mammals and birds into a habitat corridor that may relieve the isolating effect of farmland surrounding the wood.