Frederick, P. C. 1987. Chronic Tidally-Induced Nest Failure in A
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Cooper Ornithological Society Chronic Tidally-Induced Nest Failure in a Colony of White Ibises Author(s): Peter Frederick Source: The Condor, Vol. 89, No. 2 (May, 1987), pp. 413-419 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Cooper Ornithological Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1368495 Accessed: 06/10/2009 16:04 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ucal. 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The CooperOrnithological Society 1987 CHRONIC TIDALLY-INDUCED NEST FAILURE IN A COLONY OF WHITE IBISES' PETERFREDERICK2 Departmentof Biology, Universityof North Carolina,Chapel Hill, NC 27514 Abstract.Over five seasons, I censusedan estuarinecolony of WhiteIbises (Eudocimus albus)in SouthCarolina using aerial counts before and after tidal washovers. I found61% of all nestingstarts were abandoned during these tides; since not all washoverswere mon- itored,this figure is conservative.An analysisof tidegauge data indicates these destructive tideswere frequent, and predictable across seasons. This colony is growingin size,and there is circumstantialevidence of breedingsite fidelity despite the washovers. This is surprising, sinceWhite Ibises are knownfor frequentcolony shifts. Although egg predationat this colonywas comparativelylow, and clutchsize comparativelyhigh, breeders still suffered far moretotal nest loss thanat othercoastal colonies. I suggestWhite Ibises do not use nestingfailure, or predictabilityof failureas cuesfor abandonment,but relyon environ- mentalcues such as localfood availability and frequency of nest-sitepredation instead. Keywords: WhiteIbis, Eudocimus albus; nest failure; nest abandonment; nest predation. INTRODUCTION sponse to predationmay vary with the timing in the reproductive and whether the preda- is common in cycle, Breeding-sitefidelity many avian tion was nocturnal or diurnal and the ultimateand caus- (Southern species,though proximate Southern 1979). Similarly,degree of within-sea- es of this are understood. Ulti- fidelity poorly son breedingdispersal of Blackbirds success will mold the Red-winged mately, reproductive spe- (Agelaiusphoeniceus) following nest predation cific criteriaused for nest-site choice and as cues depends on the of predator and for On a type (Monnett breeding dispersal. proximate level, Rotterman 1980). nestingsuccess itself could be a cue for breeding- Other causes of large-scalenest failure may site fidelity or abandonment.Many species are also not lead to abandonment. known to to new sites colony Though disperse followingnesting degradationof nesting substrate often leads to failure, or to remain on sites nesting following colony relocation (Weise 1978), Southern and successful attempts et al. 1977, breeding (Darley Southern(1982) found complete bulldozingand Newton 1982, Coulson and Thomas 1983, filling of a portion of a Ring-billed Gull (Larus Shields 1984, see review Rohwer How- by 1986). delawarensis)colony resulted in only a 12.2% ever, breeding dispersal following reproductive reductionof in that of the failure is variable across review in nesting part colony. species (see Similarly,Burger (1982) found nest failure of Rohwer 1986)and may oftenbe initiatedthrough entire colonies of Black Skimmers other than failure. (Rhynchops signals reproductive niger) due to nest predationwas a reliable is often in colo- pre- Breeding-sitefidelity striking dictor of colony site abandonment,whereas nest nially nesting species. Though colony abandon- failurefrom tidal inundationswas not. Since nest ment in to has been response predation frequently predatorswould returnto a in MacDonald Buck- probably colony reported(Cullen 1960, 1979, futurepredation at and some col- ensuingyears, once-predated ley Buckley 1980, Burger 1982), colonieswas predictable,but tidalwashovers were onies are known to continue chronicnest despite unpredictableat any location in Burger'sstudy predation 1949, Southernand Southern (Austin area across years. Burgersuggested that the de- In larids, abandonment in re- 1979). colony greeof predictabilityof the sourceof nestingfail- ure is an importantcriterion for colony site aban- donment. 'Received17 July 1986.Final acceptance 29 Sep- I describe chronic mass failure tember1986. Here, nesting due to tidal inundations in a of White 2 Presentaddress: Dept. of Wildlife,118 Newins- colony ZieglerHall, Universityof Florida,Gainesville, FL Ibises (Eudocimusalbus) that has not led to col- 32611. ony abandonment. The predictabilityof these [413] 414 PETERFREDERICK tidal events is examined in detail, and several ules of parentalbirds at this stage were usually explanationsfor such colony site tenacityare ex- too unpredictableto make aerial surveys accu- plored. rate.Although I took data from most destructive tides, the aerialsurveys did not encompassall of them. MATERIALSAND METHODS In order to estimate the actual extent of tidal This study was conducted on PumpkinseedIs- destruction,I examineddaily high-tidedata from land (33016'N, 79012'W), an estuarine mixed- a nearby tide gauge (NOAA #8662746 "South specieswading bird colony in GeorgetownCoun- Island,"5 km from Pumpkinseed,established in ty, South Carolina, for five breeding seasons 1975). I defined "destructive"tides as having a (Marchthrough June, 1980, to 1984). This 8.9- heightgreater than 0.80 m above mean sea level. ha island is covered primarilyby a dense stand This was the height of the tide from which I of needlerush(Juncus roemarianus). A thin band measured the least percent nest abandonment of shrubs(Iva frutescens) along the northeastern (21.9%) using the aerial method. Because de- edge is the only elevated nesting substrate,usu- structivetides were often clumped in time, but ally occupied by nesting Great Egrets (Casme- only the first one actuallydestroyed nests, I de- rodiusalbus) and other ardeids. fined a single destructiveevent as having more On Pumpkinseed,White Ibises nest only on than five calendardays between it and the next matted-down clumps of living Juncus, and in destructive tidal event. I only considered tides many areasthese clumpsform a continuousmat. duringthe normalibis-nesting season (March20 Nesting is thereforelimited to one plane;heights throughJune 30). of 64 nests averaged0.32 m (?+0.10 m) above I then tested for a correlationbetween height the mud substrate.These Juncus nests are com- of tide and percentloss of nests duringthat tide. pletelyopen, and have no vegetationabove them. For this test, I excluded any aerial counts that In each season, I counted numbers of active could have yielded ambiguouscounts (low qual- ibis nests on slides taken of the colony from a ity photographs,low angle of viewing, etc.). Per- fixedwing aircraftat approximately150 m above cent nest abandonmentfigures were subjectedto groundlevel. The ibis nests werecounted by pro- arcsinetransformation before the correlationtest jecting the slide onto a wall. White Ibises were to achieve homoscedasticity (Sokal and Rohlf the only white-plumagedspecies to nest in the 1969). Juncus, and counts of ibises were only made of I also documented egg predation on Pump- areas in which the rathersynchronous ibis nests kinseed.No terrestrialpredators exist on Pump- were known to be in the incubationstage. Pairs kinseed, but Fish Crows (Corvusossifragus) and usually took less than 35 sec to exchangeincu- occasionallyLaughing Gulls (Larusatricilla) prey bation duties (pers. observ.) and the relieved on ibis eggs. In 1984, I individually numbered member of the pair always left the island im- 468 eggs in 178 nests with indelible ink at two mediately. Thus numbers of white birds in the locationson the island. These eggswere recount- Juncus-coveredareas were assumedto represent ed 10 days later at one location, and nine days the number of ibis nests. This method is quite later at the other. These nests were known to accuratefor countingWhite Ibises at Pumpkin- have experiencedno tidal inundationduring this seed. In 1975, previous researcherscompared time, since the flocculent mud below nests re- similar aerial counts of markedquadrats visible tained old bird tracks.Daily egg mortalityrates from the air, with ground counts of the same were then calculatedas numberof eggs lost/days areas. The two methods resultedin greaterthan exposed (Mayfield1961, 1975). The two counts 95% agreement(P. DeCourseyand T. Murphy,