Freshwater ponds adjacent to the Laguna Madre along the lower Texas coast provide an important and heavily used source of fresh water for the redhead (Aythya americana) throughout winter. A 267‐turbine wind farm was constructed within the core wintering area of the redhead on a private ranch along the western coast of the Laguna Madre, in 2010. Our objective was to investigate the effects of this wind farm on the habitat and potential displacement of redheads and their use of coastal ponds along the lower Texas coast. We conducted weekly aerial surveys to monitor coastal pond use by wintering redheads from mid‐October through mid‐March during pre‐construction (2000–2003) and post‐construction (2012–2014) of the wind farm. Pond availability and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) within the wind farm were significantly correlated during pre‐construction (n = 16, R2 = 0.53, P = 0.035) and post‐construction (n = 11, R2 = 0.64, P = 0.003). However, the number of ponds available at each PDSI level within the wind farm decreased during post‐construction (paired t = 3.2, n = 5, P = 0.033). The average number of redheads detected per survey on coastal ponds within the wind farm decreased by 77% from pre‐construction to post‐construction. Redhead abundance on ponds across the entire Laguna Madre increased by an average of 3.26 times between pre‐construction and post‐construction, partly due to increases in the continental redhead population. It appears that the wind farm has altered the use of coastal ponds by redheads during winter. Future wind farm placement along the lower Texas coast should consider coastal pond distribution and the dynamics of redhead use between coastal ponds and foraging areas in the Laguna Madre. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.

Grasslands provide important resources for pollinators in agricultural landscapes. Managing grasslands with fire and grazing has the potential to benefit plant and pollinator communities, though there is uncertainty about the ideal approach. We examined the relationships among burning and grazing regimes, plant communities, and Bombus species and Apis mellifera L. abundance and nutritional indicators at the Grand River Grasslands in southern Iowa and northern Missouri. Treatment regimes included burn-only, grazed-and-burned, and patch-burn graze (pastures subdivided into three temporally distinct fire patches with free access by cattle). The premise of the experimental design was that patch-burn grazing would increase habitat heterogeneity, thereby providing more diverse and abundant floral resources for pollinators. We predicted that both bee abundance and individual bee nutritional indicators (bee size and lipid content) would be positively correlated with floral resource abundance. There were no significant differences among treatments with respect to bee abundance. However, some of the specific characteristics of the plant community showed significant relationships with bee response variables. Pastures with greater abundance of floral resources had greater bee abundance but lower bee nutritional indicators. Bee nutritional variables were positively correlated with vegetation height, but, in some cases, negatively correlated with stocking rate. These results suggest grassland site characteristics such as floral resource abundance and stocking rate are of potential importance to bee pollinators and suggest avenues for further research to untangle the complex interactions between grassland management, plant responses, and bee health.

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The Laguna Madres of Texas, USA, and Tamaulipas, Mexico, are the most important wintering areas for redheads (Aythya americana) as most of the continental population winters in these lagoons. Redheads forage in the saline waters of the Laguna Madre and make daily flights to coastal freshwater ponds on the adjacent mainland to drink. The abundance and spatial distribution of coastal ponds varies depending on precipitation and can influence the foraging pressure on adjacent seagrass meadows. We conducted weekly aerial surveys to monitor coastal pond use by wintering redheads from mid-October through mid-March along the entire length of the Laguna Madre of Texas, during 2000Texas, during -2003Texas, during and in 2012Texas, during -2014. We developed 3 parameters to provide a measure of biological value of each coastal pond to redheads: amount of foraging habitat within 10 km of each pond, water permanence of the pond, and the potential to distribute redheads if inundated. During 101 aerial surveys across 5 years of study, we identified 140 coastal ponds that were used by redheads. We developed a prioritization scheme to identify wetlands that remain inundated in all years and targeted them for conservation protection. We identified those coastal ponds that, if enhanced through increasing their water permanence, would provide additional drinking sites during dry years and help distribute redheads on more foraging habitat, thereby reducing potential overgrazing on seagrass meadows. We identified 3,624 ha of foraging habitat (21.5% of all foraging habitat) in the lower Laguna Madre that had no coastal ponds within a 10-km radius and, thus, was proximal to potential areas for coastal pond creation. Our results provide guidance for resource managers to protect, enhance, or create coastal ponds to reduce foraging pressure on seagrass meadows in the Laguna Madre and help sustain future populations of wintering redheads.