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!
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!