[obol] Wrentit nest cycle question

From: Keith Saylor <kfsaylor@xxxxxxxxx>
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 14 May 2014 09:01:27 -0700
Hello Everyone,

I've been observing the nest cycle of the allen's hummingbird along the
southcoast. Because of the wrentit predation of hummingbird nesting young
I've observed, the wrentit nest cycle has become a satellite study tethered
to my study of the hummingbirds.

I am still working out a specific protocol to observe and locate wrentit
nests. Locating and observing their nests has been a challenge.

Each year I observed selasphorus females building their nest earlier than
the previous year. This year I located nests much earlier than the previous
years.

Over that past three years, I've observed wrentit consistently building
nests starting in the 2nd week of May.

I began my study assuming the wrentit nest cycle began earlier in the year
because they are year around residents. However, I have not been successful
proving the onset of the wrentit nest cycle before the 2nd week in May.

The general onset of the wrentit nest cycle has become particularly
interesting to me because of the "early" onset of the selasphorus nest
cycle this year at least in my experience with the Bandon population.

To date,I have four selasphorus nests (in gorse) with young ready to fledge
within days. These nests will mostly like prove successful.  This is
significant to me because, over the past two years, I've tracked
selasphorus hummingbird nest failure (in gorse) at over 60% when the
wrentit young, in general,  are about the leave the nest or have left the
nest. They become family units of marauding hords predating selasphorus
young in the nest at every opporutnity. I suspect other low nesting species
are also predated regularly by wrentits. Another species I've observed
predated by wrentits is one orange-crowned warbler nest with young.

Observations this year are suggesting those selasphorus females that build
in gorse and nest out ahead of onset of the wrentit nest cycle may escape
nest failure because of wrentit predation. That is, their young may leave
the nest before the wrentit marauding hords amass.

This leads to a question. Is there anyone out there who has experience
locating wrentit nests before May?

Thanks,

Keith F. Saylor

This all leads me to a question. Is their anyone out there who had personal
experience with wrentits nesting before May along the south coast?

-- 
Keith F. Saylor
[obol] Wrentit nest cycle question

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