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Conditions inside parrot nests

by Sam Williams

In the February 2010 PsittaScene article about the yellow-shouldered amazons on Bonaire I briefly discussed how hatchability is a problem for the population on Bonaire and how we use dataloggers to record nest environmental conditions. I'd like to use my blog to explain a little further and show you some of the outputs Rhian and the team got from our initial studies in 2009. Rather than re-write text from the magazine I'll assume you've read that article:

We put data loggers in a variety of nests and this provided a valuable insight into the remarkably different environmental conditions in different cavities. Here are some figures and descriptions (below) of the temperature and humidity fluctuations in three different nests. Dew point was recorded by default, but just ignore that line on the graphs for now.

Figure a. shows the conditions in an exposed cliff nest, and the thing to note on this one is the sharp increase in temperature to 45°c during the morning. This coincides with a sharp decrease in humidity from 70% to 45%, which is slow to rise again. This we suspect is when direct sunlight shines into the nest. It is concerning as the temperature is greater than eggs would be incubated at but this particular female has managed to hatch all her eggs before so it does not automatically mean hatching failure.

Figure b. illustrates the conditions inside an enclosed cliff nest. Both temperature and humidity remain relatively constant at around 30°C and 75% respectively, compared to that of the exposed cliff nest, and there are no sharp increases or decreases in temperature or humidity.

Figure c. shows the conditions inside a tree cavity. In this nest there are clear and fairly large fluctuations in temperature and Humidity. Temperature ranges by around 8°C and humidity by nearly 20%.

The three nests are clearly very different. This is interesting but I'm really wondering about is what situation does Mrs Parrot prefer and what are the consequences for female parrots that have no nest site options and so must put up with less than preferable nests or not breed? With time we hope to be able to find out!

Posted by Sam Williams on 03/03 at 11:47 PM
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The many hats of a conservationist

by Sam Williams

Being a parrot conservationist means so many things.
At the time of my first encounter with wild parrots, Echo's in Mauritius, an incredible 16 years ago I would have said it was all about hands on fieldwork, getting out there and sorting them out. Since then I've experienced so many different aspects of it and I know I still haven't even scratched the surface. So why am I all reflective? Well I just went to make my second cup of tea and was just thinking about what I'm doing this morning and how I would never have thought I'd be here even a couple of months ago.
Today I have to get back into my research thesis and finish a couple of minor corrections I was given in my exam (PhD defense) last month, so that's me being a scientist. One of the reasons I didn't get to that immediately, apart from procrastination was that the day after the exam I was flying over to the States to give a presentation with Phoenix Landing Foundation, a great group of people doing a good job with parrots, Stalwart parrot advocate Ann Brooks raised $1500 from a relatively small group which was fantastic for us. I guess for that event I was doing what comes naturally for me, like Ann I was being a parrot advocate. Since getting back from that trip, I've been working on a policy note with my research colleague and good friend Rowan Martin. This will basically inform the Bonaire Government which are the most important parrot areas that they should keep an eye on. So that's informing policy on the list too. I've also been working with my girlfriend Rhian Evans who was leading the field team out in Bonaire this year. She is getting very close to finishing up her report from the season and I've been reviewing the report for her. I'm not sure whether this counts but that's kinda proof reading on the list too!
But the thing I've been mostly doing, and I'm getting more comfortable saying it, is being an entrepreneur! Rhian and I have got great ambitions for the project and we are looking at how we can make the project more sustainable, how we can generate funding to continue our work. So this morning, having had a week or more of just jotting ideas down on paper before they disappear, I am now trying to pull together all all those bits of paper and get organised once again. Rhian and I are learning a heck of a lot, about business, about being all things eco, and some stuff about Bonaire we hadn't considered. It's incredible journey and ultimately it's about helping parrots even though it may seem far from being that at times.

Posted by Sam Williams on 11/26 at 12:37 AM
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There’s no more candle

by Sam Williams

It's nearly midnight on Friday night and if I was on Bonaire I'd be out enjoying a wee rum and coke and having a dance to shake out a week of parrot field work. Some would say burning the candle at both ends. But I'm not on Bonaire, booooo! I'm in North Yorkshire (which in itself is lovely, you really should visit!) and I'm about to run out of wax for the day, it's all on gone on writing this never ending thesis, both ends. It is parrot work but not as I know it. I've just finished a second draft on Chapter 2 a description of the parrot's life history, how many eggs, how many tiny pink bundles of joy and how many of those grow into big ol' fledglings. I'm actually pretty pleased with it. But there's still so many more chapters to do.

Fieldwork may be tough but it's tough in a "I'm so tired my legs have gone numb, I want to go back to bed and I have to walk up that hill under the relentless tropical sun" kinda way. In reality that's easy! Sitting at a desk and writing up science, Man that's tough! Everything else becomes fascinating. I'm not one for sitting still at the best of times so just staying on the chair is the first challenge. It's a constant battle to stay focused. Then I'm going through all the events of the previous seasons and my mind wanders all over. Today I was reviewing this chapter, a sentence needed tweaking, "with the exception of two nests, all late nestling period failures were due to poaching" or something. So I'm thinking about those exceptions: the first I went to the nest and two chicks were starving, their sibling had not made it and something was clearly wrong. Either the parents had abandoned them which is unusual given they'd got so far along or more likely one or both parents had died. The chicks had lost about 100g each. So I packed them in my rucksac and rode home with them. Luckily the parrot team are a healthy bunch and we had plenty of fruit in the house and I made a nice smoothie for which they were very grateful. A week or so later we fostered them into two different nests and they fledged hoorah! the other nest was the one I wrote about last year. Honey bees had moved into a nest cavity which had three chicks in it and the chicks had died, maybe from bee stings, maybe from starvation because the parents couldn't fight the bees. It's becoming a common problem, on Bonaire and elsewhere. That nest is a great abseil its off a 20 meter cliff and from the top you get this great view of Klein Bonaire an inshore, island where there's great diving, I kayaked around it one time. I even kite surfed to it one time..... FOCUS! You see, in those day dreams I've lost a few precious minutes of thesis writing time and I'll never see them again and there's so much still to do... Chapter 3 is on the factors affecting productivity and that needs a lot of attention, 4 and 5 are ok, 6 is good. I've still to write the introduction (1) and final discussion (7) chapters and then all the formatting, contents and title page aaaaarrrrgghghhhh.

And there's so much to tell you too, you can see movies and blogs from this season's field team on ParrotWatch.org but I also have (more exciting than thesis) news: I had a quick visit to Bonaire and then a trip to Antigua for a regional meeting (because writing a thesis isn't quite enough stress), there's the future plans for the project and I'd like to share some of these results too but I'm afraid it's all going to have to wait until next month.

This morning I woke to the hoot of an owl at 5 am. No, (sigh) I couldn't go back to sleep, my brain turns on immediately and then I'm stuffed. Other than making those endless cups of tea, 3 meals on the garden bench and a sneaky siesta, I've been sitting at this desk all day, ALL day! And it's still Friday night. But its' okay I've got my Friday night Bonaire soundtrack on, regaton is playing and I'm gonna dance around the room like a nutter.

Then do it all over again tomorrow.

Posted by Sam Williams on 08/14 at 03:48 PM
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I’m in the Caribbean, and the Audubon mag!

by Sam Williams

I've managed to escape from the UK and get over to Bonaire! It's odd to see the project chugging along but not be part of the fieldwork. Rhian has been extremely busy training and managing the team and then scattering them across the island every morning and every afternoon. The logistics of this is incredibly tricky because by the time you have got the hang of it (ie. during the incubation period) the situation changes.

Things have been going well and one pair has even laid five eggs, which Rowan and I had never seen in our 3 years. Even on Bonaire I was doing quite a bit on my thesis but I did manage to get out into the field and see some parrot chicks, which was great for me.

A big reason for the trip to Bonaire was to take the opportunity to meet with other NGOs on Bonaire. The week ended up being even more manically busy then usual but we did get to talk with lots of people about our future ideas for the development of the project. We even talked with policy advisors and the Commissioner for the Environment. Everyone was very receptive to our ideas for further, broader conservation and research initiatives and it is a very exciting time!

In addition to doing the field work Rhian has been courting the media! She has taken over the bi-weekly local newspaper project updates that I had done in previous years and she's been posing for a photographer friend who has written an article on the project for a Caribbean magazine. The main picture from this photo shoot even made it on to the front page of the main Papiamentu newspaper which was a big success.

And finally we've had another excellent bit of media coverage. Following a visit last year an article by the Audubon Magazine has just come out, you can see it on this link:
http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features0907/greentravel.html

Posted by Sam Williams on 07/18 at 09:03 AM
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