SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 
399 
College of Agriculture and Related Sciences, Delaware 
State University. We thank Nicholas McFadden, the staff of 
White Clay Creek State Park, and the Delaware Division of 
Parks and Recreation for their cooperation. 
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Nestling Diet of Eastern Meadowlarks in East-central Illinois 
Susan Linn Ostrand 12 and Eric K. Bollinger 13 
ABSTRACT.—We observed Eastern Meadowlark 
(Stumelia magna) nests in Conservation Reserve Pro¬ 
gram grasslands in east-central Illinois to examine the 
influence of tile surrounding agricultural landscape on 
nestling diets. Esophageal ligatures were applied to 3- 
and 6-day old nestlings to examine food items brought to 
the nest. The most common items were spiders (44% of 
total volume; primarily wolf spiders [Hogna spp.J), 
followed by orthopierans (23%; crickets, grasshoppers, 
and katydids), and lepidopteran larvae (18%, primarily 
cutworms). Adult Eastern Meadowlarks foraged more 
often than expected in soybean fields. Received 8 August 
2011. Accepted 21 November 2011. 
1 Department of Biological Sciences. Eastern Illinois Uni¬ 
versity, Charleston. IL 61920. USA. 
2 Current address: 663 Winding View. New- Braunfels. 
TX 78132. USA. 
3 Corresponding author; e-mail: ckhollinger@eiu.edu 
Grassland ecosystems in the Midwestern Unit¬ 
ed States have been reduced and fragmented, 
largely due to expansion of rowerop agriculture 
(Herbert 1995. Askins et al. 2007, Walk et al. 
2010). Wildlife depending on these habitats 
consequently has been affected, including grass¬ 
land birds, which have typically exhibited dra¬ 
matic population declines in the last 50 years 
(Bollinger and Gavin 1992, Askins 1993, Herbert 
1995, Vickery and Herbert 2001, Sauer et al. 
2008). The remaining grasslands lend to occur in 
small, scattered patches surrounded by large tracts 
of agricultural land, negatively affecting area- 
sensitive grassland birds (Ribic et al. 2009). Many 
birds have been shown to use rowerop agriculture 
(Bollinger and Caslick 1985b; Best et al. 1995, 
1998; Boutin et al. 1999; Kershner et al. 2004; 
Walk et al. 2010) for multiple reasons including 
both foraging and nesting. Relatively little 
