Well today was the first day of the real season for me. I drove in from Olympia by 2pm and headed out to the southern edge of Oaks Bottom for a quick look at what the bushtits were up to. I only had an hour, but the weather was so clear and pretty, I couldn't resist.
And what were they doing? They were messing around in small flocks of 5-10 birds that divided and coalesced seemingly randomly, although I'm certain it wasn't random. I'll know better when I have more birds banded.
Which deserves a quick explanation:
In Arizona, my study area in the Chiricahua mountains was well within Coronado National Forest and so my study area was, literally, boundless. The lovely result was that I could be certain I had every bird in a flock (or whatever we'll call it) banded and every nest found. I didn't have to worry about roads or fences or people's backyards or sensitive wetlands. I could go anywhere. Consequently, I could be certain I knew what every single bird was doing from day to day. Every spring, flocks were full of old friends with just a few new unbanded birds that had dispersed and joined up over the winter or early spring.
Not so in Portland. The flocks I am finding now are most certainly as cohesive and tight-knit and closely-related as those in Arizona, but I am constrained by the urban-ness of the terrain. I can never find every nest in a flock because some of these nests are unfindable. I had one last year that was well out in the wetlands at Oaks Bottom. Some nests are in backyards. Others are in areas that are otherwise off-limits. So I do what I can. Every year I find as many nests as I can within the constraints of Oaks Bottom, Sellwood Park, Riverfront Park, Westmoreland Park, and Reed campus. Many of these nests are nests of old friends and I am always delighted to see them. But every year I have nests with unbanded members of the same flock whose nests the year before I couldn't find. It is only the observations I make during the breeding season and especially near the beginning and end that verify who belongs to which flock.
I should also mention that every year I see banded birds early in the season and never find their nests! I know that they are still around when the season starts to end and they show up with fledglings in tow.Very frustrating!
Ok....that's a bit about urban bushtit research! Not particularly easy, actually.
Back to my short afternoon: I ran into a conglomeration of bushtits --- perhaps 10 -- near the northern end of the big field. Most of the birds I saw were unbanded, but I was excited to find PPRX and W-X among them. W-X is a first year male whose father was PYLX -- I'm hoping I'll find PYLX who was the "helper" in 2018 at Nest 11 and had his own nest last year. The same year PYLX was a "helper," PPRX had a nest very close by that was successful twice. So PYLX and PPRX are clearly members of the same flock...perhaps even related.
Now PPRX is a male who has been a very successful breeding male for the last two years and he is a real character! Last year he booted PYLX out of his first nest after finishing a clutch of his own at another nest and leaving the female to incubate alone (a no-no and the same thing LLRX seems to be capable of). Then he himself gave up on PYLX's nest (never knew why --- someone else eventually rehabbed it and moved in) and became the doting father at his original nest where he and the female raised two broods successfully.
Poor PYLX, in the meantime, seemed a bit lost although he continued to hang out in the area. He finally nested late in the season in a small tree at the opposite end of the big field and successfully raised a brood of four -- W-X was one of them.
So....not much to report yet, but two banded birds in just an hour and verification that nest-building is imminent based on the loose nature of the flocks and some chases I saw, was better than nothing and a nice start to the year! I'm sure there are already nests out there just waiting to be found :-). And more of my banded friends.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment