saltmarsh habitat & avian research program | …€¦ · web viewtops and bottoms of eggshells...

SHARP SOP 23 May 2019 (ECP, past - KJR, SR, ARK, SEA)

NEST SEARCHING AND MONITORING PROTOCOLSSaltmarsh Habitat & Avian Research ProgramStandard Operating Procedure

Survey Goal:To gather data and better understand breeding behavior and success of individual sparrows over the course of a summer and between years. Precocial birds will also be monitored.

General Approach:Nests will be located and monitored until they either fledge or fail. Sparrow chicks will be banded when they are old enough. Nests should be monitored once every 3-4 days. Information such as vegetation around the nest, vegetation the nest is constructed from, and nest height will be collected to better understand where species choose to build their nests.

Version history

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Direct any comments, corrections, or changes to Kate Ruskin or Chris Elphick.


Date Revised Summary of Changes Reason for Change Author Notes

May 18, 2015 NOT RECFloating rail and willet eggs as a priority.

NOT RECSam Roberts research? Kate Ruskin

May 23, 2019 Various. The largest changes include:1. Expansion of precocial species

nest monitoring details.2. Adding details regarding

monitoring and data collection for nests under construction.

3. Changing the method of creating nestID’s (no longer ZZYYXXXX###, but rather ZZYY###).

4. Added nest status “0” to denote “no active contents” (no eggs or chicks present) for the first entry for nests under construction that then have eggs laid.

Great SOP clean up of 2019 Kate Ruskin/ Sam Apgar

Contributions made by PI’s and graduate students on SHARP call. Final editing completed by Sam Apgar.

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Nest searching

The entire time you are in a plot, you should be looking for potential nest sites. For sparrows, this involves paying attention to where birds flush from, checking likely flush sites (very carefully) for nests, watching especially for repeated flushes from the same spot, and noticing when birds are carrying food (your impression will be of a decidedly "front-heavy" bird, because of the bits of prey sticking out of the bill – this impression can be seen with the naked eye; it is good to confirm it with binoculars, but not at the expense of watching where the bird goes). A bird flushing from a nest with a faecal sac is also quite obvious as the sacs are gleaming white. Nest searching in the morning is best because the females are more likely to be on the nest and therefore more likely to flush. In addition, lower temperatures are less damaging to the young than higher temperatures. There is also an indescribable element of voodoo involved with finding nests that just comes with experience. Your best bet is to go out with someone who has found some nests and look at where the nests are. Most people get quite good at finding nests quite quickly, though no one ever believes that they will.

Paying attention to what has been going on with the tides can also help with nest searching. Because flooding causes a lot of nest failures, and flooding is predictable, nesting can be highly synchronous (especially in saltmarsh sparrows which lose more nests to flooding). This means that you can know what types of behaviors are likely to be informative when you go out in the marsh. After a very high tide there is likely to be a lot of singing, and not much nestling feeding (because many nests will have been flooded, and birds will be renesting). Consequently, it might be hard to find nests because there will be fewer of them. A week or so into a nesting cycle, most females will be incubating, so watching for last minute flushes can be very helpful. In contrast, two weeks after a round of egg-laying begins, most females should be feeding young, so flushes might not be so informative. Instead, it will be important to pay a lot of attention to any bird that seems to be carrying something in its bill. These things also affect your nest searching strategy. When birds are likely to be on eggs it will pay to walk up and down in the marsh watching for birds to flush. When birds are likely to have nestlings, it might be more productive to sit and watch for birds carrying food.

Formal nest searches should be conducted as frequently as possible, but not so frequently as to cause detrimental disturbance to the birds. For SHARP demographic sites, it is important to search all parts of a plot at least once every few days because we want to get detailed information on renesting rates; consequently, even nests that do not last for very long are important. In CT, we generally conduct a thorough nest search every time we mist-net in a plot, after the netting session is over. Additional searches can be conducted as time allows when visiting plots to monitor nests. When nest searching, the procedure is simply to walk back and forth in a zigzag fashion, with each path ~5-10 m from the previous one. There may be other ways of finding nests other than just systematically checking every grass tuft. Some groups use fiberglass poles to move the grass while nest searching because it is less likely to disturb the vegetation. Other groups prefer to bend over and search with their hands because they feel it is safer and more thorough. The best method may vary based on the marsh. What’s important is that, whatever

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method is used, as many nests as possible are being found. A good measure of efficiency of nest searching is that few if any nests are found after the eggs hatch.

Willets, rails, and black ducks often do not flush until you are almost on top of the nest. If these birds are being targeted or you suspect that one of these species has a nest nearby, walking paths that are closer together (5-10 meters apart) are recommended. Willets seem to incubate regularly starting prior to or just at clutch completion. Rails don’t appear to incubate as regularly during the laying and early stages of incubation. Nests are often found visually by spotting a large, tall, partially covered nest with one or more eggs within a few meters of tidal ditches and creeks in tall grasses (Spartina alterniflora). Rails may also make a low booming call near the nest earlier in incubation. Rails sit tightly on nests that are closer to hatching and will flush when about to step on the nest. They often perform broken wing displays and call loudly when one is very close to an active, soon to hatch nest.

Nest cards should be created and measurements taken as soon as a nest is found to avoid pushing the female off of the nest more than once.

For some help identifying sparrow nests to species, please see below in Appendix A.

Marking nests

Once nests have been found, they should be marked with flags and a GPS location taken directly over the nest (in UTMs). To minimize attention from predators, flags should be cut so that the streamer part is only 1-2 inches wide. A nest card should be filled out right away, and it is usually helpful to draw a small map of the immediate area on the back of the card, in order to help re-find the nest on subsequent visits (especially if it is not you who will be coming back). The types of thing worth marking on the map include the relative position within the plot, location of nearby ditches or pools or osprey platforms, any boundaries between vegetation types (e.g., the border of a patch of Juncus), etc.

We avoid putting flags right next to nests so as not to alert predators to the nest’s location. Instead, use one of these methods; (a) place a flag ~3-5 m away, such that the nest lies on a line between the flag and some easily identified marker (e.g., an osprey platform, a unique house, etc.), (b) if there is no suitable marker, put out two flags each ~3-5 m away from the nest, such that the nest lies directly between them, or (c) use a standard compass bearing to set the line between the flag and the nest. For any particular research group it is a good idea to make the convention consistent. If you chose to use landmarks etc., make sure you write down the details on the nest card in case someone else comes out to check the nest. Once you are certain that a nest has completed, you should alter the flag in some way, either by moving it directly to the nest and/or bending it over to denote that the nest has finished and so that the nest can be easily re-found, e.g., for collecting vegetation data.

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Nest numbering: To make it easier to combine data sets from different research groups, we will all use a common nest numbering system. Each nest should be given a number that consists of (1) the two letter site code, (2) the last two digits of the year, and (3) three numbers denoting the Nth nest found that year, so that numbers take the form: ZZYY###, where ZZ is the two-letter code for the site where the nest occurred, YY denotes the year, and ### is the nest number. The two-letter site codes (“ZZ”) are listed in the Banding SOP.

Within each research group, all nests are numbered sequentially, without regard to species. For example, if the first three nests found in CT in 2011 were a saltmarsh sparrow at Barn Island, a willet at Hammonasset, and another saltmarsh sparrow at East River, they would have the SHARP Nest ID’s BI11001, HM11002, ER11003. In order to not confuse nests, EVERY nest must have a unique Nest ID (no repeat numbers). This method is new starting in 2019, as previous nestID’s included the species.

If multiple field teams are working in the same area in the same year, or if people are working separately during nest searching, then each should be designated a separate set of numbers to use, so as to ensure that no number is used twice. For example, one person could take numbers starting from ZZYY001, while another takes numbers starting from ZZYY201.

For the rapid demo research crews, the following slightly different nest ID coding method should be used: For Rapid Demo South Crews: RDYY001-RDYY200For Rapid Demo North Crews: RDYY201-RDYY400

Where,RD = rapid demoYY is the two letter year (Ex. 19 for 2019)and the last three digits are the numbers

Under-construction nests: If a nest is found under construction, place a flag with the date and “UC” within 3-5 meters of the nest and take a GPS waypoint (in UTMs). Walk away and write down the GPS point in either a notebook or on the “nests under construction” datasheet (see Appendix B). It is important to spend very little time (<2 minutes) at nests under construction as the chance of adults abandoning is high at this point in the nesting cycle.

Do not assign the nest a unique number ID until there is at least one egg in the nest. Check the nest again 3 days later. If no progress has been made, remove the flag. There’s no need to recheck the nest again. If there are eggs in the nest after three days, create a nest card for the nest. Enter the first row of data for the date you found the nest under construction and use a status code of “0” to indicate that the nest was found without eggs.

In between checks, stay away from the nest as much as possible; ideally leave a ~50 meter buffer, although the presence of other nests that need monitoring may influence the buffer

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radius). To this end, you might find it useful to mark the flag differently, such as with colored flagging that denotes “under construction” so the area can be avoided at a distance.

Nest monitoring for sparrows

Nests should be visited every 3-4 days after finding to track nest contents. Nest visits completed five or more days after the previous visit might be excluded from nest survival analyses, so do all that you can to avoid this loss of information.

If three days is not possible for every nest, then attempt to achieve this for as many sites/nests as possible. For instance, if you have a boat-access site, it may be too time consuming to make trips to check nests when you have no other reason to visit the site, especially when there are few nests there. In this situation, it would be acceptable to visit less frequently. But, for sites with easy access, or whenever there are a lot of nests at a site, do all that you can to maintain nest checks every 3 days. To prevent disturbing the nest too much, nests should not be checked more often than every three days unless necessary due to an upcoming disturbance such as rain.

Finally, continue to visit a nest until it is no longer active, that is, until it is either failed and the parent is no longer attending to it or the chicks are gone. If chicks are older than fledging age (day 9), visit the nest. If the previous visit was more than 5 days earlier, visit the nest (if it is still active when you visit the nest after 5+ days, it can be included in analyses). If eggs are clearly nonviable to you the observer but the female is still incubating them, visit the nest.

Nest visits should be brief and every attempt should be made to minimize disturbance. For example, to prevent leading a predator to a nest, the nest should be approached from different directions each time and you shouldn’t walk directly from one nest to another. In addition, the recorder should stand back to minimize trampling around the nest. If you can see into the nest and count contents without getting right up close, then do so (carrying a bamboo stick can be helpful as it allows you to part the vegetation without getting right up next to the nest). If nestlings are present, make note of physical features indicating their approximate age based on developmental characteristics (feather development, body size, open eyes; see the Nestling Aging SOP). The nest bowl should also be checked for wetness. If any eggs or nestlings are seen outside of the nest (especially after a flooding event), make note of that. If any eggs or chicks are missing since your last visit, make a thorough search of the area around the nest to see if there are drowned chicks, or eggs that have floated out. Be very careful doing this because chicks that are more than 5 days old are known to climb out of the nest. Make sure to check where you put your feet. If the nest is empty then record whatever details you can relative to the nest’s fate – e.g., broken egg shell, chewed body parts, any nest damage, etc.

Details of each visit should be recorded on the appropriate nest record card (see below). When nest contents have gone missing, it is important to provide as much detail as possible, both about what you do see and what you do not. Information about other nests lost in the same area and time frame can be especially helpful to record, although the fate of one nest should not be simply

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inferred from the fate of others. If iButtons are being used in a nest, they provide the very best information (see iButton SOP). All of this information will be used to assign nest fates at a later date.

Ibuttons should be placed in the nest no sooner than when the nest has a full clutch. The ibutton should be pulled once it has been determined that the nest has either fledged or failed. Note that Willet and Clapper Rail iButtons should be hidden in the side of the nest to avoid adults ejecting iButtons. More info on Ibutton use can be found in the Ibutton SOP.

Dead eggs and nestlings are useful for various studies and should be collected as long as you have permits that cover salvage. Collection and storage methods are described in the Tissue Collection SOP and there is a place on the nest card to record what was salvaged.

Before leaving the nest, check that the iButton is present and correctly positioned, as birds will sometimes attempt to remove them.

Nest monitoring for Willets and rails

Nests should be visited every 3-4 days after finding to track nest contents. Nest visits completed five or more days after the previous visit might be excluded from nest survival analyses, so do all that you can to avoid this loss of information.

Continue to visit a nest until it is no longer active, that is, until it is either failed and the parent is no longer attending to it OR the chicks are gone, not until the chicks are 9d old (the official “fledge” age according to the above sections for sparrows). Because these species are precocial and salt marshes provide ample cover, you will rarely see fledged chicks if checking the nest every three days. If targeting these species for a nest success study, checking nests daily after the eggs are floated H (see SHARP Egg Floating SOP) will allow you to see starring or pipping on the eggs. Pipped eggs hatch within approximately 24 hours. Since rail nests are asynchronously laid, there’s a higher chance of seeing fledglings than for Willets.

If the previous visit was more than 5 days earlier, visit the nest (if it is still active when you visit the nest after 5+ days, it can be included in analyses). If eggs are clearly nonviable to you the observer but the female is still incubating them, visit the nest.

For nests of unknown age, during each visit carefully inspect every egg for signs of starring and pipping and make note of this. For nests with an estimated hatch date, begin carefully inspecting every egg for starring and pipping each visit 4 days prior to the estimate hatch date. Eggs that show starring can hatch within 1-3 days and eggs with pipping usual hatch within a day.

Nest visits should be brief and every attempt should be made to minimize disturbance. If any eggs or nestlings are seen outside of the nest (especially after a flooding event), make note of that. If any eggs are missing since your last visit, make a thorough search of the area around the nest to see if eggs that have floated out. If the nest is empty then record whatever details you can relative to the nest’s fate. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR THESE SPECIES. In order to

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determine the nest fate of Willets and rails, we need extensive notes and photos (downloaded and labeled with the nest ID) for every completed nest (suspected to be failed or fledged). We specifically need detailed information about eggshell patterns.

On the WILL/rail nest card there are three fields relating to eggshell remains: “% fragments”, “% pieces”, and “Tops/Bottoms Y/N”. For “% fragments” and “% pieces” you should write in what percentage of the remaining eggshells are fragments and what percentage are pieces. Tops and bottoms of eggshells are not considered in these fields, so “% fragments” and “% pieces” should add up to 100%. In the notes there should also be a quantification of the amount of eggshell fragments and pieces found (e.g. about 1.5 eggs worth of fragments and pieces found). For “Tops/Bottoms Y/N” you will indicate the presence or absence of eggshell tops and/or bottoms at the nest and within 5-10 m of the nest.

Eggshell evidence guidelines (adapted from the Arctic Shorebird Demographic Network Breeding Camp Protocol ftp://ftp.manomet.org/ShorebirdResearch/ASDN/ASDN_protocol_V1_FINAL_22%20May2010.pdf):

Eggshell top and bottoms: Eggshells that are approximately equidistant length from the center of the top or bottom eggshell to the broken edge of the shell. These pieces are created when hatching chicks pip through an eggshell at a nearly uniform level around the top of the egg.

Eggshell fragment: Pieces that are 1-5 mm at maximum dimensions. Fragments within this size range are expected in successful nests because chicks break through the eggshell and produce small pipping fragments when hatching.

Eggshell pieces: Eggshell pieces larger than 5 mm at maximum dimensions. These pieces can be found at successful and failed nests, and are not reliable indicators of the fate of a nest.

For finding eggshell tops and bottoms: Once you have determined a nest is no longer active search within a 5m radius of the nest for eggshell tops and bottoms. Adults may remove eggshells from the nest after the chicks hatch. Check to see if the membrane is separated or is easily separated from these eggshell remains.

For finding pip fragments: With the tip of a pencil carefully pull away the top layers of the nest. Continue all the way down to the soil. Pip fragments often sink into the nest lining.

Details of each visit should be recorded on the appropriate nest record card (see below). When nest contents have gone missing, it is important to provide as much detail as possible, both about what you do see and what you do not (i.e. if there are no eggshells, note that). Information about other nests lost in the same area and timeframe can be especially helpful to record, although the fate of one nest should not be simply inferred from the fate of others. All of this information will be used to assign nest fates at a later date.

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Egg floating: Float Willet and rail eggs when first found (if clutch completed) and strategically throughout the nest monitoring period. Floating eggs is a method used to estimate the hatch date of precocial bird species and will be an important aspect of accurately assigning nest fates to these study species. Please make sure all crewmembers are familiar with the Egg-floating SOP, where details about this process can be found.

Banding chicks: If sparrow nestlings are to be banded (usually they should be), then that should be done when they are ~6-8 days old. If banded too early, the bands will simply fall off, or be too tight if legs are very swollen. If the nest is visited too late, there is a risk of the young fledging prematurely. If banding is done at the young end of the age spectrum, then the smallest chick(s) in a brood may be too small to retain a band and a second visit might be required. If it looks like a band might slip over the joint at the base of the tarsus, DO NOT band (wait a day or two and come back), because there is a risk it might get caught over the toes.

When you plan to band birds at a nest, take all the banding equipment that you need with you so that you can band the birds close to the nest. Don’t take the chicks too far from the nest because you don’t want the female to come back to an empty nest. At the same time, don’t band right next to the nest because it could disturb the vegetation around the nest. Approach the nest quickly as older chicks may climb out of the nest and scatter in the vegetation as soon as they detect your presence. Gather all of the chicks when you first arrive and place them together into a single bird bag. Do not take them from the nest one at a time, or some may escape into the vegetation where they will be hard to find. Once in the bag, you can remove them for processing one at a time, placing them back in the bag once you are finished. When the entire brood has been processed, carefully place them back into the nest keeping one hand over the nest cup as you return the chicks. Then back away quickly. If chicks leave the nest as you are returning them, do not worry. We know that they climb in and out of nests routinely during flooding events and it is likely a normal response to the presence of danger. There is no reason to believe that they will not be able to get back into the nest as soon as you are gone. By spending a lot of time searching for them when they are already banded, you may drive them even farther from the nest.

If you are visiting a willet, rail, or duck nest, expect the chicks to be gone within 24 hours of hatching. You can assume that you will not see them unless the nest is monitored daily close to hatch date. If you need to band these species, then you will need to float the eggs to estimate their age, and start visiting the nest daily 3-4 days before you expect it to hatch. On each visit carefully check every egg for starring or pipping. Once this appears, hatching is imminent.

Nest cards

Whenever you go out in the field, carry a batch of blank nest cards so that you can fill in basic information when you first find a nest. When doing a series of nest checks, always take the

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relevant nest cards with you so that you (a) have a map and directions to the nest, (b) know the conditions on the last visit, which can sometimes help explain what you find, and (c) can fill the information in directly to avoid transcription errors later on. Nest cards should be printed on fairly stiff card stock or Rite in the Rain paper so that they can withstand some abuse, but remember that these are primary data so take care not to get them wet, muddy, etc. One option is to keep them on a clipboard inside a large Ziplock bag. Another is to use a plastic “concertina folder” which provides separate slots for each type of data sheet, SOPs, field maps, etc., etc. Printing the nest vegetation data sheet on the back of the nest card reduces the amount of paper you need to take in the field and keeps all the data related to a single nest together.

Keeping a duplicate record of data cards (e.g., by scanning the cards at the end of each day, entering data straight into an excel spreadsheet, etc.) can be a useful backup, just in case a nest card is lost or damaged in the field. More important is to have a very good system for storing and carrying cards with you, and sticking to it (we have found a “concertina folder” to vastly improve our organization!).

The nest cards are designed to be self-explanatory but you should ask questions about ANYTHING you are uncertain of.

Top section (general nest info):

Fill in the top section with the appropriate information about the nest and site when you discover the nest.

Nest #: Use the nest numbering system described above. Example:

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Species: Use the 4-letter code for the species that made the nest you found

Site: Use the 2-letter code for the site you are at.

Subplot: The # for the subplot you are in.

Easting/Northing: Although you may not have a GPS with you at the time of discovery, it is good practice to GPS the nest as soon as possible during subsequent nest checks. If you do not have a GPS, write a note under the next blank line to get coordinates on the next visit and be sure to mark near to the nest with colored flagging so that the nest can be re-found easily.

iButton ID #: This number will be located on the bottom of the iButton. This information will only be obtained once an iButton is placed into the nest which will not occur until the nest is fully clutched and being incubated.

iButton Date: The date the iButton is placed into the nest

For the following entries: Including information on the parent’s band numbers will only be possible if you are uniquely color-banding adults or trapping birds at the nest; if you do not have this information, write “NOT REC” in this section. If you are confident that a particular banded adult is associated with a nest and know the band number or color-band combo, record it. If you think you know, but are not certain, note the uncertainty. Don’t guess, even if you feel sure that the bird you caught near the nest the day before is the nest owner. For Saltmarsh and Nelson’s sparrows the only way to know the identity of the father(s) associated with a nest is through paternity tests, so only the female’s details can be entered.

Female Capture Date: The date the attending female ID/band number is obtained.

Female Band #: The band number of the attending female – please be sure that this number is also written on a banding sheet and morphological data is taken if possible or as needed.

Female Blood/Feather Sample: If a blood or feather sample is taken for the attending female, circle it on the datasheet.

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Male Capture Date: Only applicable to seaside sparrows – the date the ID/band number of the attending male is obtained.

Male Band #: Only applicable to seaside sparrows – the band number of the attending male – please be sure that this number is also written on a banding sheet and morphological data is taken if possible or as needed.

Male Blood/Feather Sample: If a blood or feather sample is taken for the attending male, circle it on the datasheet.

As noted above, a sketch showing important location details, can be very helpful when you are juggling a lot of nests or sites or when someone other than yourself needs to perform a nest check. Putting this on the card itself is also a good idea as then it will always be with whoever goes to do a nest check. Marking nests on a field map of the site is a suitable alternative.

Middle section (individual visit info):

Record data for all fields in the visit lines for every visit. All information should always be recorded.

Date: The date of your current nest check.

Time (military): The time you began checking the nest. Please use military time.

Observer Initials: The initials of the observer collecting the information from the nest (this may not be the same person recording the information).

# Active Eggs: How many eggs are still active? For eggs, this usually equates to how many eggs are in the nest and still being incubated? Eggs not found or found outside of the nest will not be recorded here but this information must be put in the notes. If eggs are crushed in the nest, use your best estimate as to how many eggs are still in the nest. Eggs found outside of the nest or found cold inside the nest will not be recorded here but this information must be put in the notes.

# Active Chicks: How many chicks are still active? For chicks, this usually equates to how many eggs are alive. Chicks not found or found dead outside of the nest will not be recorded here but this information must be put in the notes.

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Eggs Warm? Y/N: Estimate whether the eggs/chicks are warm or not. Lightly touch them with your fingertips to check. You don’t need to take them out of the nest unless you have been unsure if the nest was failed for multiple checks. If this is the case, carefully remove one egg and touch it to your temple to determine if it is warm or not – this should only occur in extreme cases. *Please note that it is very easy to crack an egg with long fingernails. Please keep your fingernails short for any field work involving eggs or let someone else check for egg warmth.*

Nest Status:

0: No active contents

1: Undisturbed/normal

2: Partially destroyed by flood

3: Completely destroyed by flood

4: Partially depredated

5: Completely depredated

6: Partially failed unknown

7: Completely failed unknown

8: Fledged

9: Unknown (if failed/fledged)

10: Never had eggs

Codes (0-10) for use in this column are found in the margin on the far right side of the card. Assigning codes is not always straightforward and a full assessment may not be possible until after the nest has completed. During the nest visits, however, simply assign the code that you think most accurately reflects the nests’ status for the period since the previous visit and take copious notes on what you observed and why you picked that fate when it is uncertain. Criteria for each status are described in: SHARP Altricial Nest Fate SOP & SHARP Altricial Nest Fate Key.

Nest Bowl Wet? Is the nest bowl itself wet? This can be checked the same time you are checking eggs for warmth. You should only be considering the inside part of the bowl, checking it for wetness or dampness, not the underside of the nest. Note how wet the bowl is in the notes (sopping wet, wet, somewhat damp, etc) and indicate if you knew it had recently rained or there was a very high tide in the notes as well. This may help you make a decision as to the ultimate fate of the nest later (i.e. the nest was found wet but full of eggs, the eggs remained for two more checks but were never warmed - the nest likely failed due to flooding at the initial wet check).

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Chick Age (x5): This will be an estimate of the age (in days) for each individual chick found in the nest (not for eggs). You should never just look at a previous nest check and add the number of days that have passed to obtain the age as we are trying to obtain information about how individual chicks grow. To properly age chicks, see the SHARP Nestling Aging Guide. A just hatched chick will be day 0 and a chick near fledging will be day 8-9 – however, chicks have been known to occasionally stay in the nest to ~12 days on rare occasion.

Eggs/Chicks Collected? Were any deceased eggs or chicks collected for future study? Proper permits must be in place for this to occur. Please indicate in the notes how many chicks/eggs were collected and their salvage ID.

Salvage numbers and chick banding details should be filled in when sampling is done. A salvage ID sample number should be given to each chick/egg salvaged. If you are salvaging a banded bird, then use the band number as the salvage ID. If there is no band, then use the nest number with the addition of the letter “E” if it is an egg or the letter “C” if it is a chick, followed by a number denoting which egg/chick it is. For example, if 2 eggs and 1 chick were found washed out of a 2011 seaside sparrow nest at East River, they would be numbered: ER11004-E1, ER11004-E2, ER11004-C1. If the eggs/chicks have already been numbered in laying/hatching sequence, then use their designated sequence numbers.

Female Flush? This is a Y/N question. Did you see a female flush from the nest as you approached for a nest check?

Flush Distance (in m) or NA: If you did see a female flush from the nest as you approached, how far were you from the nest at the time of the flushing in meters. If you did not see a flush, use NA.

Female Chip? Was the attending adult chipping at you during the nest check (usually when this happens, the female returns after flushing and pops up around 5-15 meters from the nest making single chip notes)? This can be difficult to determine in areas where many nests are close together. Learn to identify the differences in chips of different species. If unclear if the chipping bird is the attending female, please indicate this in the notes.

Notes: Notes on behavior/nest condition can be very helpful in ascertaining nest fate at a later date, so record notes generously. Use this space to describe any changes in the nest’s integrity (e.g., pulled apart by a predator or leaning sideways due to large chicks); whether the nest appears damp (e.g., due to flooding); whether and how many dead eggs/chicks were found, where they were found relative to the nest, and what condition they were in (i.e. egg chewed apart and in several pieces, chick looks bloated and may have been under water for more than 1 day); and any other information that may help assign a fate to the nest. Additional notes can be made at the bottom of the nest card, or on the back if necessary but be sure to add the date. This information is especially important if the nest has obviously failed.

If you suspect flooding has occurred and any of the nest contents are missing, take a careful look at the vegetation in the immediate vicinity, flooded eggs and chicks can float out of nests and are

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often found nearby. If a nest appears to have flooded but has not lost all of the eggs, continue monitoring with nest checks at the normal intervals, because females will persist in incubation and the remaining eggs often hatch. If a nest with chicks appears to be empty, but it is too soon for them to fledge, also keep monitoring, because young chicks (often day 3+) can climb out of nests and hide in the surrounding vegetation and may not be observed on your current nest check.

Bottom section (ultimate fate info): Most of the boxes at the bottom of the page should be filled in after the nest has completed because they describe the cumulative status of the nest over the entire nesting cycle.

The maximum number of eggs and chicks are the greatest numbers detected in the nest over the entire cycle. The number of fledged chicks is the number of live chicks present on the last nest check prior to the expected fledge date. The number of eggs and chicks found flooded/depredated/missing/etc. are the summed totals for these over the entire nest cycle.

Hatch date and fledge date should be estimated by reference to a known benchmark date. For example, if the nest was found during egg-laying, then you can count forward from the day of clutch completion. We use a standard incubation period of 12-days with the day of the last egg in the clutch as day 1 and hatching to commence on day 12. If the nest was found with nestlings use the Nestling Aging SOP to age them, then you can estimate nestling age and count back/forwards from that using the 12-day incubation period (don’t forget that nestlings are aged day 0 when hatching, not day 1). If a nest is found with a complete clutch and fails before chicks hatch then these dates usually cannot be estimated with any precision (see Gjerdrum et al. 2005. Condor 107:849-862 for a simple estimation method that has been used in past studies). Floating eggs may provide a means to age them, but has not been field tested in sparrows (see Egg-floating SOP for details of floating Willet and rail eggs).

Determining the nest fate (i.e., the ultimate result) is critical for later analysis. To minimize variation in how fates are assigned, this should be done by the grad student responsible for each study site (in consultation with others, as necessary). Rules for doing this are given in the Nest Fate SOP and associated Nest Fate Key, which should be followed closely to ensure consistency across individuals. Occasionally, ambiguity arises and it is best to determine fate promptly, while the course of events is still fresh in your mind and field assistants are around to ask questions of. Initial determinations of nest fate should always be reevaluated in light of iButton data.

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Back of Card- Top (chick marking/banding)

When banding chicks, note what color bands were used (following the scheme in the Banding SOP), the USGS band number, and whether blood or feather samples were taken. Place all of this information on the Nest Card as well as on the SHARP Nestling Measurements sheet if used.

Back of Card- Bottom (SHARP Nest Vegetation Sampling Card)

The “Initial Veg Survey: Nest Structure Measurements” section of the vegetation card should be collected immediately upon finding a nest (if it contains at least one egg/chick) or as soon as possible afterwards. Please see SHARP Nest Vegetation Sampling SOP for how to properly fill this in.

Appendix A – Sparrow Nest/Egg ID Tips

Saltmarsh Sparrow Nests: Often contain 5 eggs early in the season but this count may be reduced over time due to renesting or due to eggs flooding from nests (some rare instances of larger clutches have been noted). Eggs are small and a soft white color, often with a tinge of pink. A quantity of small spots cover the egg that vary from a light pink to burgundy to brown color and often are densest at the top of the egg although some individuals lay eggs with very light evenly dispersed spots. Eggs tend to be rather rounded at the top and somewhat pointed at the base, similar to a chicken egg. Nests are often found in high marsh vegetation at the base of Iva frutescens bushes or in short S. alterniflora grasses but this is not always so. Nests can range in shape from an exposed cup nest to a nest under the cover of thatch or live vegetation to a nest covered partially or completely by a woven canopy.

Seaside Sparrow Nests: Often contain 3-4 eggs early in the season but, as in saltmarsh sparrows, this count may be reduced over time. Eggs are slightly larger and more of an oblong

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shape with a rounded top and somewhat less wide but also rounded bottom. Eggs are often a soft white color with dark spotting that is often thicker and more evenly spread across the egg than saltmarsh sparrows. Nest cups tend to be slightly larger than saltmarsh sparrows and nests are often placed in tall form S. alterniflora or at the base of Iva frutescens bushes. Nests often are built with a partial or fully formed canopy that can often give the nest itself a spherical shape.

Comparison of SALS and SESP eggs. The 5 eggs on the left are SALS and the egg on the right is from a SESP. Note the size and shape comparisons. These eggs were found submerged underwater so colors and splotching characteristics are faded and not accurate but the dense splotching that appears on some SALS eggs can still be noted.Photo: Alison Kocek

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Saltmarsh Sparrow Eggs. Note the fairly pointed ends of most of the eggs, the small light speckling that is even on some eggs and accumulates at the top of the center top egg. Photo: Alison Kocek

Seaside Sparrow Eggs. Note the thick spotting and oblong shape. Note that splotching is fairly evenly spread all over the egg. Photo: Alison Kocek

Appendix B – Nests under construction

Example of data collected for nests under construction. See https://www.tidalmarshbirds.org/?page_id=1596 to download datasheet.

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