Detailed Study of Cape Sable seaside sparrow nest success and causes of nest failure: 1st Quarter Report, 7 April 2005.

Lockwood, Julie

This report details the initial field season of a three-year project devoted to understanding the breeding distribution and biology of Cape Sable seaside sparrows within small subpopulations (C and F). • The logistics of surveying for sparrows along 2km transects in subpopulations C and F are manageable, and we foresee few problems continuing this effort for the duration of the project. These transects followed closely the lay-out of the extensive survey, thus providing independent confirmation of assessments made using extensive survey data. • The transect surveys turned up very few sparrows. This reflects the following issues; (1) sparrows are thought to be rare in these habitats and our surveys confirm this, (2) our surveys were set 1 km apart thus we may have failed to survey areas that did hold sparrows, and (3) male sparrows may not sing unless prompted by a neighboring individuals, thus introducing the possibility that sparrows were present along our surveys but went undetected by us. • The transect survey will be modified in the coming years to eliminate influences on numbers of sparrows counted, beyond their inherent rarity in this habitats. In particular, surveys will be concentrated into areas where we suspect sparrows may be found (i.e. eliminate transects that clearly ran through unsuitable habitat), conduct them at a finer resolution, and use tape-recordings of sparrow songs to prompt males to sing and thus be counted by us. • The interplay between the surveys and the establishment of study plots designed to collect demographic information worked flawlessly. Although not planned for this season, we managed to band male sparrows in subpopulation C. • We anticipate few monetary or logistical issues with the continuation of the surveys in the coming field season (March 2006), and with stepping up efforts to band sparrows and monitor their nests within subpopulations C and F.