Nests Three and Four!

Today Adam found towhee nest number three. He had observed a female towhee very busily carrying grass near the bench in M5. After she brought in a few billfuls of grass he was able to narrow down the nest site, and found the nest under a hazelnut root! The nest was practically subterranean! Very difficult to find. At first we assumed that this female is Gimpy (- Y-A), who we had seen foraging numerous times with BBAG (male) this year. Adam says that he was not able to see a yellow band on the nest-building female’s left leg, but she didn’t appear to have any toes on her left leg, which leads us to believe that it IS –Y-A, and that she just recently lost her yellow band. Luckily this nest is still in the building stage, so there will be time to accurately determine the nest’s owners.

Today I decided to search for the nest of GORA (male) and ORBA (female) around L2 where we banded GORA last year. As soon as I arrived in the area, I found ORBA foraging. She hopped about, kicking up leaves behind her while foraging, then stopped right next to a very suspicious-looking sword fern. She did not reappear. I kept my eyes fixed on the spot for about five minutes, and I still did not see her emerge from the sword fern. I slowly approached the sword fern, and she scuttled out from under it. Nest number four, with four beautiful eggs!

In W12 Adam and I used our speakers to broadcast the towhee song. I had seen ORPA (female) in that area before carrying leaves, but I was never able to get a good look at the male’s bands. Soon after we played the towhee song, a male appeared and sang from a few different perches. His band combination was - - AN. Is this RYAN, ORPA’s mate from last year? We will have to catch him again to read the number on his aluminum band to be sure.

In U9 we saw BGAN (male) and his unbanded female in the same area where I first saw her carrying leaves several days ago. We thought she settled somewhere near a holly, but then I saw her a few feet away from us, and she was not sitting on a nest. We decided to back away and come back later to hopefully flush her off the nest. Later, we searched the area, but there was no sign of a nest or of the female.

In M1 AY- - was seen with RRBA (female), but there was no sign of nesting.

Today we set up our motion-activated infrared camera for the first time this season to estimate mammal abundance in the park. We tie the waterproof camera to a tree about a foot off of the ground, and place a fox-urine soaked cotton ball on a popsicle stick in the ground. Mammals in the vicinity come to smell the fox urine, and the camera takes a short video clip so we can identify the mammal.