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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 124. No. 2. June 2012 
in calculating the distance to the nearest river and May. June, and July between 1992 and 2010. Data 
to the nearest stream lor villages with nests, while on land use of the study area between 1995 and 
the center of the settlement was used for 2009 were obtained from the Turkish Statistical 
measurements of those without nests for the Institute (www.tuik.gov.tr) in four categories: 
distance to the nearest river or stream. The mean crop fields, vegetable production, fruit production, 
altitude of settlements with and without nests was and fallow land. The primary agricultural products 
compared with Student’s t -tests and their domi- were crops for human food, animal feed, and 
nant aspects, and distances to the nearest river and livestock production. Crop fields were mainly 
stream were compared with Mann-Whitney U- grain crops including wheat, cereals, and maize, 
tests. Altitude was positively correlated with both Vegetable production consisted of beans, cluck- 
d'stance to the nearest river and slope, and pea, lentil, peas, and spinach. Fruit production 
separate univariate logistic regression models was mainly tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, 
were used to explore the magnitude of their The annual number of breeding'pairs. total 
e sets on the presence of nests and their Akaike s number of tledglings, and breeding success (mean 
Information Criteria (AIC) were calculated. The number of flcdglings/pair) were'compared with 
ogistic distribution and the logit link function both maximum, minimum, mean temperatures, and 
were used to obtain the odds ratio. Principal total and maximum precipitation data for each 
components analysis was not performed as the month separately (Apr, May, Jun. and Jul) and tor 
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkm measure of sampling ade- the entire breeding season (averaging the values of 
quacy was . 6 . t | lese 4 mont f ls y anc j w j[h t f, e area 0 f eac h 
l he mean standard density of active White agricultural category using correlation analysis. 
01 , n ^ sf - s (StD "pa) m the study area was ealeu- Information on flood control, drainage works, and 
ated (Schuz 1952, Nowakowski 2003, Now- changes in electricity distribution schemes in the 
akowski and Wasilewska 2006). The structure study area was obtained from the regional office of 
on which the nest was placed (nest types) was the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works 
recorded and grouped into three categories: build- (DSI, www.dsi.gov.tr), National Electricity Au- 
ing. electricity pylon, and tree. Chi-square tests thority (TEK). and the Regional Electricity Com- 
were used to investigate differences between the puny (UEDAS. www.uedas.com.tr), respectively, 
nest types ot towns with the villages. Analyses 
were conducted using PASW statistical software 
(Version 18.0, www.spss.com). The significance 
level was set at P < 0.05. 
Nest-Site Selection .—White Storks were breed¬ 
ing in only 17 (23.0%) of 74 settlements. Those 
with White Stork nests were significantly lower in 
elevation and closer to the nearest river than 
settlements without nests (Table 1). The mean 
± SD elevation of nests was 283.3 r 77.3 m 
(range - 185—436 m). No significant difference 
was found between the mean aspects of settle¬ 
ments and distances to the nearest stream between 
settlements with and without nesting White Storks 
(P " 0.284 and 0.529, respectively). The number 
of settlements with nests increased with decreas¬ 
ing slope (Table I). Altitudes and distances to the 
nearest river of settlements with and without 
White Stork nests varied significantly (Fig. 2). 
RESULTS 
Breeding Success and Number of Breeding 
Pairs .—The total number of nests, number of 
breeding pairs (occupied nests), and total number 
of fledglings of White Storks were recorded in the 
central town in 1984, 1987. and between 1992 and 
2010. The study area was visited several times 
during each breeding season. We confirmed the 
presence ol a breeding pair when we observed at 
least one individual constructing, defending, 
incubating, feeding chicks, or perching on the 
nest (Aguirre and Vergara 2009). We counted the 
total number of fledglings when they were about 
6 weeks of age. A graph was prepared to docu¬ 
ment changes in number of pairs and fledglings 
throughout the years, and polynomial cubic 
regression lines were added based on highest R~ 
and lowest AIC values. 
