Growing up fast! We track a subset of the chicks each year in order to look at survival rates and growth rates. In order to do so we use small radios on unique frequencies to differentiate individuals and to find them once they leave the nest. We catch them periodically to reattach the radio and to get information on growth rates. This is a little over a week old chick I caught a few weeks ago.
I had a pretty exciting and busy weekend. A rain storm today is giving me a little time to write this up!
Its chick hatch which is usually exciting enough, and an extremely busy time for me, but Saturday I had some time to nest search for a few hours. As I was walking through the bog in an area I hadn't been in about a month I saw a female fly and perch in a tree. I picked up my binoculars, and she was unbanded. Not surprising as that's what I was expecting with the pair that had been seen nearby. As I debated if I needed to walk closer to confirm she didn't have any bands I saw a male flying really low and then perch in a tree near her. This got me excited because I could have sworn he came from the ground - a good sign that he was at his nest. I looked and he was banded. I approached to read his flag code and realized I couldn't see it because he had a geolocator glued to it. (Remember last year's epic female U0?) Geolocators are small light sensing data loggers that were used here from 2009-2011 to get information on where that individual flew for the previous year or two. Its what helped us figure out that our birds spend the non-breeding season on Chiloé. Oh boy! I followed him for a few minutes trying to see the other side and read his code losing track of the female in the meantime but he took off for the mudflats. I had a good guess it was the male JM, who we saw with a geolocator in this area of plot last year but failed to find his nest before it hatched. I immediately started nest searching where I thought he had come from. After an hour or so, a bird flushed from about a meter in front of me. A godwit! There! The nest! The female flushed. She had been incubating four eggs. I quickly marked the nest with my GPS and and started the process of measuring the eggs when we find a new nest. Not surprisingly, the eggs were starring - when the baby inside the egg begins to poke its way out of the egg. Unfortunately for me that means it would hatch within a few days. Not very much time to catch the two adults! After a quick brainstorming session with Garrett, who still knows the project better than anyone else, I had a plan. Retrieve that geolocator! But first I wanted to try for the unbranded female. One of my techs agreed to stay on plot for an extra couple of hours and try to catch her with me. I was hoping for success, not sure if I would have time another day to catch her. We approached and she was back incubating, but she flushed from under my net and escaped. Shoot! After spending a long day in the field, I headed home planning to return that night to capture the male. After a short break for dinner, I headed back to plot with Mary, one of my technicians, to try to capture the male there and one at another nest I had missed three times. Luckily for me the night went perfectly. We caught the name JM and retrieved his geolocator. Amazing how durable the plastic can be - it had been slowly wearing away and had only a few millimeters left encircling the leg and even that was cracked. I was happy to retrieve this logger that had been deployed in 2010 and neither Nathan nor I had been able to find his nest or capture him before it failed or hatched since then!! Mary and I were pretty happy with just that capture, and knew that coming back out into the field was already worth it when we captured the unbranded male that had been alluding me at a neighboring nest. Two for two! We went back to the cabin happy to get a few hours of shut eye before a busy day of banding babies on Sunday. But back to the story of my special godwit nest. Sunday was busy, chicks hatching out on both plots. With the generous support of the Heilmans I borrowed a vehicle so I could move quickly between plots. I had an extra hour so I headed back iht to the western section of south plot intent on catching the female. My last shot. It went perfectly. My relief was palpable. I pulled the female out of the net and I already had a plan. If you were reading the posts from Chile you might recall that sometimes we "name" godwits. It has to be an unbanded bird at a nest that you found. I've always let my technicians get first grabs at other nests as well. But this was my nest. And I knew that I could get a good name. This female is now named "1KL" for my mom, Karen Laurene Campbell Swift (KL), and for my grandmother, Laurene. The L can also stand for my Grandad and my sister Lily. I covered a lot of ground with that letter! And now, the Campbells are represented in the godwit project! Happy to get both adults at the nest while it was still starring we settled in to a regular hatch check protocol. Today, I got to run out to that nest in order to band the four babies! They're now outfitted with tiny radios so we can track two if them to see where they go and how long they survive. This was my 6th godwit nest I found this year (we have 16 nests total). With it I broke the five nest record that three of my techs have had making it special in that respect as well. Overall its a pretty special nest! We're still in the middle of hatch craziness, so hopefully they'll be some more fun stories soon! I've been busy as a bee and about to get busier as we continue to nest search and collect data at the nests we have. This is me with my favorite female, J12, whose nest I found last week. We are doing well, up to 13 nests total, despite a few nests getting depredated early on. Here's to more nests and captures! I'll try to write again soon!
We're up to seven godwit nests, so we're on track for another productive and full field season. The photo above is of a nest I found the other day - the male is an individual we saw repeatedly in Chile! We're doing great targeting these priority birds with six of those seven nests having at least one breeding adult seen on the non-breeding grounds!
May is here! Instead of May flowers we got large numbers of godwits. Right on time it appears that the majority of the breeding population is back in Alaska - they typically arrive within three days of each other. We've been getting larger and larger flocks during our mudflat scans and more and more of them have been banded individuals from this breeding population.
When we aren't scanning the mudflats, we've been out in the bogs and on plot. The crew is getting familiar with the landscape, walking on uneven terrain, where godwit territories typically are, and setting up some of our environmental data metrics. With the arrival of larger numbers of banded birds today, we'll start nest searching soon! We're back in Beluga gearing uo for anotger breeding season. Not many shorebirdd back yet, so we can enjoy the Varied Thrushes, Bald Eagles, and ever increasing migrants while we scan for godwits on the mudflats.
March 10, 2016
The field season in Chile is over, but I thought I’d provide a few summary statistics and interesting facts that have accrued over the last 9 weeks: 30 unique individual godwits 18 males and 12 females 6 complete breeding pairs 7 individuals banded as a chick the day they hatched 142 species seen by Garrett or me in Los Lagos region 136 species seen on Isla Chiloé 72,196 godwits seen during all our scans (Many repeat samples - NOT a representation of how many are on the island) *most numerous species 10,315 Whimbrels seen during all our scans 33,000+ Brown-hooded Gulls - second most common species 14 round trip ferry crossings between islands and the mainland 157 Scans for godwits 205.5 Hours scanning 42 Sites visited for godwits Rose’s lifers: 30 Garrett’s lifers: 8 ~7,550 Km driven ~520 miles per week For scale, distance between Ancud and Quellón: 168 km 45.3 kg of luggage |
Rose SwiftI'm a graduate student at Cornell University studying Hudsonian Godwits throughout their annual cycle - in both Alaska and Chile. Archives
March 2016
Categories |