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Another parrot egg, or not.

by Sam Williams

I am afraid, dear reader, that I have neglected you and now we have so much to discuss!
Some of the parrots simply didn't bother to breed this year and others were a trifle devious and moved from the cavity we knew to another one around the corner. That in itself might not seem a bother but it might take a couple of mornings doing observations for us to work it out. Once we did work out who was where and who wasn't, we were then busy trying to get around all these nests to find out which egg was laid when, or when not.

A typical nest inspection morning would go like this. Wake up at 0430 and have a cup of tea (the parrot team are very British in this respect and have in fact imported over 1000 "proper" tea bags from the UK to last the season, but we've nearly run out - eeek!), eat breakfast and grunt at one another. Drive to a nest site (15 to 30 minutes). In the dark we'll walk through the bush, avoiding cacti by head torch, maybe climbing up a small cliff, cross perilous rocky ground and arrive at a suitably uncomfortable place to sit and wait for the parrots.



Sometime between 0550 and 0830 the male will arrive in the area and call to the female. She will have slept in the cavity and will not left without hearing his lovely voice. The moment she leaves the nest we spring into action, set up the rope and abseil to the nest. When we are trying to get lay dates all that is required for a nest inspection is to take a picture of inside the nest. Some of the cliff nests are pretty deep though and that might mean having your whole arm up to your arm pit in the nest.

It might take several attempts to get the picture but once you see what's there, and acknowledge Mr and Mrs Parrot (who are telling you what they think of you) you get out of the way. That involves climbing back up the rope as quick as you can. Next pack up the climbing gear and run back over the jagged rocks out of the way so that Mrs Parrot can get back to business. Phew!



So the picture may reveal new eggs or not, both of which helps us work out when eggs are laid. It's not quite as simple as a breeder opening a nest box inspection door but the principle is the same.

Unfortunately many pictures revealed what we like least, mortality. The first eggs of several nests were cracked. We can't be sure exactly what caused the damage but it could be rats, cats, competing parrots or even the parents themselves being clumbsy. This year we, or rather, the parrots, had several damaged first eggs. Many of the pairs continued in their efforts and went on to complete a clutch of eggs. Some, however, simply gave up at the first hurdle and didn't bother to breed at all this year. If that's all it takes to put them off it's pretty scary. We'll need to fix that in the future.

Well this "little" entry has required more words than I anticipated so I shall not write about the wonderful tiny pink bundles of joy now! I'll save that and some cute pictures for my next post.

Posted by Sam Williams on 07/11 at 03:44 PM
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Parrot advocacy and eggs!

by Sam Williams

Where does the time go! Many parrots are on eggs now and I haven't even reported on my pre season plans as I promised in my last entry. So let's do this in chronological order.

What is it like to be back on Bonaire for my third full field season? Well of course it's fantastic. Bonaire feels like home and having wild parrots in the garden is simply the way it should be. There was a lot of organising in the first month. Permission requests for this and that and a lot of admin. I don't mind getting this stuff organised but it does limit the time it's possible to spend in the field. Adjusting to early starts was harder this time but my body clock has accepted it now.

Pre season plans. Well I've been building nest boxes because I want to see whether the birds are limited by the number of natural cavities. The problem with this is they are unlikely to use the boxes within the timescale of this research project and if they don't use them it doesn't actually mean the are not limited. It could just be that they don't like the design or the positioning. Rowan arrived and we made a few more preparations like improving access to some nest and putting the camera in Oliva's nest again. So check out www.parrotwatch.org to see what's going on in there.





Parrot advocacy! We are very much involved with Salba Nos Lora (Save our parrot) an NGO here on Bonaire. And we had a hectic couple of weeks in which we held an art competition, exhibition and auction. I am pleased to say UK Parrot Society is supporting SNL for this parrot awareness through art other campaign work. Somehow it all came together and it was a great way to raise awareness and over 1400 guilders (£400). The winning art from the competition will now somehow be merged together to create a new campaign poster highlighting the parrot's protected status.

And so to the present and we find the birds are on eggs. Eeeek! hold on tight as this means the season has really begun. Fortunately for us we have Rhian Evans working with us this year. She has just completed her first intense week and she is doing extremely well. It was only in the last hours on Friday that we managed to see any sign of fatigue. As a mountain marathon runner and a rock climber we were sure she'd have what it it takes. Her arms and legs are covered in some impressive scratches as she hasn't yet learnt how to slip through the bush without being torn apart but rather than complain she has shown off her wounds with pride!

Posted by Sam Williams on 05/18 at 10:56 AM
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Carnival Parrots Movie!

by Sam Williams

Well there is a lot to report but I will not try and squeeze it all into one post. In this piece I will update you on the results of the annual parrot count and the Carnival surprise which was brilliant! Then in a week or so I'll put another post up with a bit more information about what it is like to be back on Bonaire once again and what my plans are prior to the breeding season. And so lets get on with it...

The annual Lora (parrot) count took place at dawn on Saturday January 26th and a total of 430 loras were counted. This was a dramatic change from last year’s successful count of 650 loras, so what is going on?

First a little background, the Amazon parrot that is found here on Bonaire is an endangered species and a crucial part of any conservation effort is to keep track of the animal’s population size. Lora counts have been made since the 1970s and since 1990 there has been a count almost every year. Two NGOs currently organise the count and these are: Salba Nos Lora (Save our Parrot) and Stinapa (who manages the national parks). In the non-breeding season the parrots generally flock together and form large roosts with up to 100 birds in each one. The roost locations are pretty much the same each year so teams of volunteers go out early in the morning and as dawn arrives they can count the parrots leaving the roost on their way to find food. This years count was conducted by the staff of Stinapa and over 40 volunteers including 15 students from the island's high school. Many counters return from year to year to help with this event and the quality of the volunteers observations and note taking is very high. This is very important when we come to collect the results and ensure there is no double counting.



In 2006 we worked very hard to ensure the count accuracy and it was a great success. The number of birds seen this year is much lower despite the entire count following the same methodology. What is the difference you might ask? Well there has been a lot of rain prior to this year’s count and it may well be that there is an abundance of food. This certainly seems to be the case and it is likely that the birds simply do not need to flock together as a result. It may be that they can forage just as effectively in smaller numbers. Several of the counters reported hearing distant loras and this would support the idea. So we don’t think it is an actual drop in parrot numbers but rather a change in parrot behaviour that has influenced the count result. But to be sure we’ll have to see how the count goes next year!

Carnival!
Ok so it's not Rio but the people of Bonaire hold a carnival parade every year and this year I was lucky enough to be on the island to see it. I heard a rumor there were going to be some lora costumes so I considered it my duty to go and see what was going on! The streets were packed with happy people and the atmosphere was fantastic. I was with a few friends and we found a gap in the crowd and so positioned ourselves and waited for the parade to move along the street. It was like a fun and friendly version of the baggage reclaim at the airport!! The parade was moving at about 0.3kmh so there was plenty of time to get warmed up and start swinging our hips. The anticipation was almost (but not quite!) unbearable. Anyway anyway the very first group of people to boogie on down the street were the Lora group. I was blown away! The costumes were amazing and these dedicated ladies and gentlemen had clearly put in a phenomenal amount of effort. And there were so many model parrots, full size parrot people and even a guy with two massive cacti on his back with parrots on them. Everyone was in green, yellow and red costumes and it was brilliant. Well my excited words don't really do it justice so I will put a bunch of pictures in with the blog and a movie too so you can see for yourself!

Posted by Sam Williams on 02/29 at 05:16 AM
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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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