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Season review and results

by Sam Williams

The 2007 field season was a busy one! This was for good reason and the efforts we put in have certainly been worthwhile. Good data has been collected and those precious numbers are revealing patterns that mean this or that, but more about them in a moment. First a recap of the season… Before even the most shagadelic parrot was getting in the mood preparations were being made to discover the most secretive nests across Bonaire. For 2007 the parrot team would initially be ten strong. Rowan Martin (fellow PhD research student) and I were going to need help if we were to survey more ground than we had in the previous year.

Exploiting every offer of free lodgings we scattered these dedicated nest finding volunteers across the island while we ourselves remained at Parrot HQ (aka The Palace!). It was with a heavy shock that we realised what a mammoth task it was to organise all 10 people and get them into the field before dawn, every day. The fact this involved at least three houses, three cars, one motorbike, a fear of heights, a fear of cacti and several requests to “get to watch something interesting today, please!”, only made the logistics even more interesting. But everyone’s efforts paid off and we soon had found nearly 40 active lora nests, more than double what we knew of in 2006.

And so the time-demanding job of nest inspections began in earnest and the invaluable Sophie and Tom (Our season-long volunteers) soon learnt their way around the island. After complaints of poor wages (none) Sophie decided to feign illness so she could finally have some time off. So dedicated was she in her efforts she visited the recompression chamber 3 times before we found she didn’t even have the bends! Sadly she was to return to the UK and leave us boys to it. As the season progressed we started to lose chicks. Competitors, rats and then dirty rats (poachers) were to blame. We knew of 23 chicks that fledged so the other 10 that were poached were a serious disappointment. Being able to follow a larger number of nests has given us a better perspective of lora reproductive efforts and success and we must again thank the nest finders for their efforts.

As the season drew to a close the three weary lads returned to grey skies and the UK. It seems the transition to office life is never easy but maybe it was quicker this year. As the nights drew in (or is it that the days appear less?) we launched into statistical analysis. We’ll each tell you more about that in just a mo (I'm going to include Rowan's piece so you can hear more about his side of the Bonaire parrot research), but a bit on Parrotwatch first

Setting up Parrotwatch.org was a challenge but a worthwhile one. Over $4000 was raised through online sponsorship and personal donations, this has almost entirely covered the cost (subsistence- excluding rum) of both the short term and the long-term field assistants. There will be more details of this on the site soon. It has certainly put Bonaire on the map, in fact the only continent where the site itself has not been viewed, is Antarctica! A host of PW articles were generously printed by The Reporter (Bonaire's English language newspaper) and these were well received. We also ran an "Ask Olivia" column where people could write in and ask Olivia a question such as "How man chicks do you have?". Olivia is of course the star of parrotwatch with whom you are already familiar, right?!

Anyway, Olivia’s column was even translated into Papiamento, and printed in the local newspapers too, though she chose to do it under an alias! It will be necessary to secure more advertising on the site to cover the costs of the enterprise (not paid for from online sponsorship) so if you know any business that might be interested, then please put them in touch! There will be a few tweaks before the 2008 season and we hope to renew interest as the season begins, watch this space…

Now here's a bit more info about our research from me and then Rowan

Limiting factors - Sam

The year got off to a good start with a solid count generating an estimate of 650 parrots. But this is confusing because even if the recruitment of fledglings was incredible over the last 3 years we could still expect maybe 400 of these to be adults. In that case there would be 200 breeding pairs yet we only know of 40 active nests and we’ve covered the main areas. Sure we haven’t got every pair and there may be another 40 nests, but certainly not 160 more! So what is going on?

All the evidence suggests the parrots are limited by the number of available nest sites. This is a major limit for population growth and will also influence the genetic structure of the population. The lora needs nest cavities and they do not make their own. Poachers have chain-sawed holes into almost every nest tree on the island, making them unsuitable for future use, and there are surprisingly few suitable cavities in the cliffs. I repaired some damaged tree nests and they were used within a few months – a clear sign of desperation! This is something I’ll be investigating further in 2008, but what about those that did try to breed?

We were able to access and monitor 30 nests. Those pairs produced 92 eggs, 59 of which hatched, and 23 of those chicks fledged. So despite following 13 more nests than in 2006 there were virtually the same number of fledglings. The bigger sample of nests gave us a better perspective and now we must ask whether this rate of productivity will sustain the population. After another year of data collection I’ll be putting all this data into a population model and it’ll just tell us the answer. It’s really that simple, and I can’t wait to do the analysis, honest.

Different pairs have better reproductive success than others and I’ve been trying to find out why. Rowan will tell you it’s down to the pair’s behaviour but I say it’s the environment. I’ve looked at a number of variables and there are some interesting patterns. For example, the proximity to food hot spots like Dos Pos and Fontein, has a significant effect on offspring survival and independent of that the proximity of other pairs has a positive effect too. It’s early days for this analysis but it is very satisfying to be finding patterns that will help us manage these amazing parrots.


Parrot Parenting – Rowan

This year saw a continuation of intense observations of parrot parenting behaviour. The aim of all this is to figure out exactly how pairs care for their offspring and to identify the roles of males and females in parenting. Who does what? How do they share out the workload? How does this affect their success at being parents? The answers to these questions aren’t just relevant to conservation but also shine light on how the unusually strong monogamous pair bond of parrots evolved.

Having so many volunteers meant that nesting parrots could be identified early and I was able to collect data on how pairs behave right at the start of breeding. At this time they are still checking out potential nest holes and trying to keep rivals away from the good ones. There seems to be a lot of variation between pairs in how they interact with each other at this stage, which probably determines their success later on. Pairs that nest earlier fledge more chicks so getting on with breeding quickly seems to be a good idea.

Once they get down to business the female does all the brooding of the chicks and during this time she’s completely dependent on the male for food. From this year’s observations it seems that males aren’t particularly flexible in the amount of food they’ll bring to the nest - either the female can’t communicate when she needs more or the male is just unwilling to work harder. This may mean that as the chicks demand more food the female is torn between the need to brood the chicks and the need to feed them. Or could it be that she’s just being lazy and letting the male do all the work and only pitching in when things get really tight? Either way, how the pair negotiates over chick care during this period could prove critical to determining whether or not they are successful parents.

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It seems impossible that we are already planning our third field season and there is talk of ‘writing up’ – a phase in the PhD process that neither of us are particularly relishing. For now there’s a great deal to be getting on with, not least surviving the sub-zero temperatures currently gripping England. The good news for me is that I hope to be getting back to Bonaire at the end of January in order to assist in the annual parrot count. Then between that and the breeding season I hope to spend my time radio tracking some of the chicks from 2007 to investigate patterns of habitat use and activity budgets. I can't wait!!!

Thanks to all those who have supported our project in 2007 either through donations through the World Parrot Trust or through parrotwatch.org

Best wishes for 2008
Sam

Posted by Sam Williams on 12/23 at 11:51 AM
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The life side of fieldwork

by Sam Williams

"Working in the Caribbean, Oh that's just a holiday". How many times have I heard that? For sure I have a fab job and I love it. Working with parrots is the best, but it is not all sundown cocktails on sandy beaches. In this post I'd like to share a bit of the turmoil that ending this field season brought.

I was determined not to leave Bonaire in a whirlwind this year and I started packing, cleaning and organising several days early. The project seems to have accumulated so much stuff and try as I might to be brutal there's not a lot to throw away because we do use it all. So despite my efforts my last few days on the island inevitably became a manic blur and I still ended up rushing around until the very last moment. In fact I arrived at the airport with only minutes to spare before the check in closed. In the waiting lounge I was busy with raw data input on the computer and it was only when I got on the plane did I realise I hadn't had time to prepare myself for what was about to happen.

This might seem a bit melodramatic but consider that every 6 months you have to leave the place you've been calling home, move house and leave your close friends. I was about to leave my Caribbean home and return to Britain. I was about to leave one lifestyle that I like very much and return to a lifestyle I know well but like less. Not only do you have to leave, but when you get to the next place you have to find somewhere to live (scrounging off friends until you do) and then you have to re establish the friendships you left 6 months previously. I wasn't ready for all this hassle again, nor the grey sky, and I was very depressed.

Another unpleasant shock was to not be around Rowan (Fellow Lora researcher). On Bonaire we work together, share a house, and even occasionally get to party or play together. It's more intense than many marriages and if Caroline (Ro's girlfriend) wasn't so lovely she'd probably be withered from jealousy! Rowan is easiest person in the world to get on with and a top bloke by all accounts! To suddenly not be doing stuff together was altogether odd.

It was when I got back to Britain that I realised how completely exhausted I was. The 2007 field season turned out to be incredibly intense and draining. Field work tends to become your life and this year was no exception. I think it's the same for everyone who works with endangered species. You just can't help but get extremely involved with the lives of these animals. Even before I left Bonaire I knew I needed some time off, to step away from my computer, the data and even the birds (a new feeling for me!). What I hadn't accepted was the state of deep physical exhaustion my body was in and once I'd finally slowed down that hit me hard.

Within days of landing in England I took off on my motorbike for continental Europe. My plan had been an adventure packed trip to the mountains but instead for the first time in my life I found I was content to simply relax. There was a relaxed day of eating delicious food in Paris, another spent lounging on a beach in the south of France with friends, and then a week enjoying the views of the Pyrenees. Self doubt was growing but then I got a text from Rowan which I found reassuring and hilarious. He was in Berlin and enjoying what he'd seen of the city but it wasn't all that much though as he'd also found he was worn out and had been sleeping over 12 hours every night for the last week!

Winter entries to my blog will sadly not involve fun tales of hands on parroty experiences but I shall endeavor to keep you informed with the less mundane aspects of my office-parrot-work and perhaps even share some findings...

Posted by Sam Williams on 11/13 at 05:06 AM
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The Amazing Adventures of Wee Ben

by Sam Williams

Gone are the updates full of gloom and sadness. We shall have no more of that here in parrot paradise. Instead this month's installment will be a more upbeat update and eventually we'll get to "The Amazing Adventures of Wee Ben".


The Bonaire parrot team have taken to giving the lora nests memorable names. The imaginative team members stretch themselves to come up with ever more elaborate names like the inconvenient "Far Far Away" and the technically challenging "Enigma". The nest that became known as "Boulder" was discovered on a day of all time low creativity but it was to be a day of great joy when "Caipirinha" was found.

"Bill" is so named as it can be found on a hill, and "Ben" is Ben because it is in a nearby Glen, which is Scottish for valley, although technically it's not really a glen but more of an undulating lowland. Not to matter, these details only stand in the way of less imaginative souls.

The nest known as Ben has only ever had one chick, who is best described as an ill tempered and poorly disciplined spoiled brat. This little darling has become known as "Wee Ben". Wee being Scottish for small. The alert reader will have noticed a Scottish pattern emerging. Whilst we have nothing against this, we are confused by it's origin as the team member giving these names usually resides on the Welsh border of England, far from Scotland and to our knowledge he has never been to Scotland and has certainly never eaten haggis.

Two members of the parrot team recently visited Wee Ben to check up on him. Most parrots are sexually monomorphic, that is you cannot tell males from females. Wee Ben is described here as a boy parrot only for convenience and there is an equal probability that he is in fact female. Little did the parrot team doing the visiting know that the nest inspection was to involve a few seconds of heart stopping terror. If you don't count daily abseils (rappels) down high cliffs, on poor anchor points in remote areas where there is every possibility that no one would find you for several hours should something go wrong, then you could say research into the development of parrot chicks rarely involves any great excitement. Consequently heart stopping terror which lasts for a duration of a few seconds can not go unreported, and so to

"The Amazing Adventures of Wee Ben"

It was another beautiful dawn in the undulating lowlands of the Washington Slaagbai National park. Wee Ben awoke inside his dark yet cozy nest and prepared for his daily routine. The preparations didn't take all that long as Wee Ben's daily routine largely involves sitting around waiting for food to be regurgitated into his mouth by his parents, digesting the food in order to grow and expelling the food. It's not exactly a taxing schedule.

Wee Ben is now almost fully grown and ready to fledge. It's a difficult age for young parrots. Soon he will be forced to leave the security of his nest and join the wild birds flying over the hills of the national park. Unless of course he is poached and then he can expect to spend 30 years in a small cage comparatively absent of physical activity, mental stimulation or dietary interest.

Since waking to the songs of thrashers and troupials he had waited for approximately half an hour before his ever-attentive parents arrived to fed him. Feeding visits are best described as fleeting moments of frenzied activity. On this morning it was "Mrs Ben" who first hurled herself through the nest entrance. At the sight of a parent arriving Wee Ben launched into action begging loudly and trying to grab his mothers beak. Nearly 12 hours had passed since the last feeding visit and he was hungry.

Their beaks engaged and his weary mother duly the regurgitated the contents of her crop. Wee Ben's enthusiasm was so great, and his head bobbing so vigorous that he soon caused their beaks to loose each other. Poor "Mrs Ben" realized immediately, but it was too late and she puked a beak full of food over the head of her dear offspring before managing to stop herself. This unfortunate situation did little to deter Wee Ben who swiftly returned to getting all he could from his mother. Once Mrs Ben was content her duty had been fulfilled she made her exit despite her son's forceful demands for more food. It was now Mr Ben's turn to accommodate their offspring. He did this cordially and soon Wee Ben was satiated.

Mr and Mrs Ben then flew off into the hills that surround their nest to continue their foraging. Once again Wee Ben was alone, sitting, waiting, growing and crapping. It was his intent to do this all day long, just as he had done for the past seven weeks. It was an easy and stress free lifestyle.

But suddenly this peace was interrupted, a human hand plummeted into the nest. Wee Ben hurriedly shuffled to the back of his nest. The home that had afforded him such security was now a dead end where he could not escape the groping hand of a scientist. Fingers teased a grip on a leg and then his body was held. Wee Ben bit and nipped. He screamed an ear piercing scream but it was not enough to prevent him being plucked from his nest. Whilst this truthful account of chick extraction may seem rather gruesome, readers should note that the parrot team do everything possible to minimise the distress to the chicks we handle. And we put them back into their nests within minutes whereas poachers supplying the pet trade steal these babies from their families forever.

Wee Ben's eyes quickly adjusted to the bright lights and fascinating surroundings in which he found himself. The scientists moved him around, checking over his body, looking under his feathers for parasites and measuring this and that. He did what he could to bite them and to dig his nails into their soft flesh but he was also distracted by this new world. Wee Ben could see cacti, trees, and blue sky. His eyes simply couldn't take it all in. Was this the place his mother had whispered about when he was just a tiny pink bundle of joy.

The scientist kept muttering things to one another. They manipulated him and he could do nothing but submit. "Two hundred and ninety five grams, 168 millimetres, no quill sheaf on the tail. He's going to fledge any day now. Could you hold him for a second."

Wee Ben felt the grip of the hand loosen as the other human reached forward to take him. Following a rapid chain of thoughts he punctured the finger of the first with a toe nail and with all his might he bit the hand of the second. This was enough to create a fumble, the kind not normally experienced by such highly skilled and well trained scientists! Suddenly Wee Ben burst free. "My wings, my wings". He stretched his brand new muscles, their fibres twitching in a bid for freedom. His unused feathers discovered their purpose. His unaccustomed eyes frantically trying to navigate a path through the trees. The humans sprung into action. Their carefully taken notes being scattered in the panic, never mind the wind. Their precision instruments discarded as if worthless. Never mind the cactus now embedding in your calf. Worry not about the blood on your finger. Catch that parrot chick!

Wee Ben, with his heavy crop of food, was struggling to gain altitude. The chasing human was struggling with the loose boulders and low branches. 10 meters had past and the human was gaining. Each stride of his long legs worth two of Wee Ben's wing beats. Another five meters and Wee Ben was within kicking distance, but that was not going to help the current situation involving this precious and endangered species. The non-bloody hand swooped down but it failed to catch Wee Ben cleanly. He spun out of control, landing in a confused heap in the dirt. Before he knew what had happened his bid for freedom was over. "Did I just fly" his eyes asked the scientist in confusion but before anyone offered an answer Wee Ben was being returned to the peace and security of his nest. There would be no more excitement for him today. Gosh no, a few seconds are quite enough!

For more news of Bonaire's parrots and to see inside their nests, check out our website http://www.parrotwatch.org.

Posted by Sam Williams on 08/16 at 03:35 PM
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Highs and lows the season continues

by Sam Williams

Watching wild parrot chicks develop is such a privilege and can be a lot of fun too. Parrot nests do get predated though and loosing chicks can be heartbreaking. In the last couple of weeks we have seen a lot of nest failures and it's been a hard time here on Bonaire. Overall the nests we monitored in 2006 generally experienced remarkably high reproductive success. This year we've been able to find and follow more nests due to the help of project volunteers but overall the success rate we've seen has dropped. The interesting thing is the new nest we've found are the ones that have suffered. Maybe our sample from last year was a bit biased and it's just that those particular pairs have the best nests or some other quality that gives them the upper hand. The dreaded data analysis that will take place through the British winter may reveal what it is....

Ben Hatchwell one of our supervisors has been out for a visit to see what we are up to and give us some suggestions. It seems he brought the British weather with him as on the morning Rowan took him out to observe the parrot pairs there was a huge downpour, the kind that happens only once or twice a year here. We are so lucky really as we hardly ever have adverse weather. It was nice for us to be able to show Ben the situation here. Some things about Bonaire make research a treat, the climate, the low vegetation, the community support for example. Other details, however, make it difficult and these include the spikeyness of the vegetation, the distance between nests and nest access.

Reading over what I've written I realise I'm full of mixed emotions for my work and I think this is pretty typical of an intense field season. A morning of nest checks may have you riding on high as you check over some cute parrot chicks at one nest, swiftly followed by a real low when you discover all the chicks from the next nest are gone without trace. The whole experience is something very special and as I said at the start, it is a real privelege. It's great to be doing what I do and to be here on Bonaire.

Oh and in response to Cristiana's comment....
I am as amazed as you are at how they manage to land and climb around on the cacti!!! My guess is that relatively the cacti spines are big enough for the parrots to climb around on. I've actually just put some video on ParrotWatch.org of a parrot sat nest to two parakeets on a cacti. I hope you'll like it.

Posted by Sam Williams on 07/30 at 08:06 PM
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